Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T17:38:16.378Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Epeirogenic transgression near a triple junction: the oldest (latest early–middle Cambrian) marine onlap of cratonic New York and Quebec

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 March 2009

ED LANDING ,
LISA AMATI  and
DAVID A. FRANZI
ED LANDING*
Affiliation:
New York State Museum, Madison Avenue, Albany, New York 12230, USA
LISA AMATI
Affiliation:
Geology Department, State University of New York at Potsdam, Potsdam, New York 13676, USA
DAVID A. FRANZI
Affiliation:
Center for Earth and Environmental Sciences, State University of New York at Plattsburgh, Plattsburgh, New York 12901, USA
*
*Author for correspondence: elanding@mail.nysed.gov
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The discovery of a fossiliferous interval (Altona Formation, new unit) under the Potsdam Formation requires a new geological synthesis of a large part of the northeast Laurentian craton. Potsdam sandstones can no longer be regarded as the oldest sedimentary unit on the middle Proterozoic Grenville orogen in northern New York and adjacent Quebec and Ontario. The thickest Potsdam sections (to 750 m) in the east Ottawa–Bonnechere aulocogen have been explained by deposition with normal faulting possibly associated with Ediacaran rifting (c. 570 Ma) that led to formation of the Iapetus Ocean. However, sparse trilobite faunas show a terminal early Cambrian–middle middle Cambrian age of the Altona, and indicate much later marine transgression (c. 510 Ma) of the northeast Laurentian craton. Altona deposition was followed by rapid accumulation of lower Potsdam (Ausable Member) sandstone in the middle–late middle Cambrian. The Altona–Ausable succession is probably conformable. The Altona is a lower transgressive systems tract unit deposited on the inner shelf (sandstone, reddish mudstone, and carbonates) followed by aggradation and the deposition of highstand systems tract, current cross-bedded, in part terrestrial(?), feldspathic Ausable sandstone. Unexpectedly late Altona transgression and rapid Ausable deposition may reflect renewed subsidence in the Ottawa–Bonnechere aulocogen with coeval (terminal early Cambrian) faulting that formed the anoxic Franklin Basin on the Vermont platform. Thus, the oldest cover units on the northeast New York–Quebec craton record late stages in a cooling history near an Ediacaran triple junction defined by the Quebec Reentrant and New York Promontory and the Ottawa–Bonnechere aulocogen.

Keywords

CambrianLaurentiatrilobitessequence stratigraphyepeirogenyPotsdam FormationAltona Formation
Type
Original Article
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 146 , Issue 4 , July 2009 , pp. 552 - 566
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alling, H. L. 1919. Geology of the Lake Clear region. New York State Museum Bulletin 207–208, 111–45.Google Scholar
Benison, K. C. & Lowenstein, T. K. 1997. Carbonate-hosted mineralization of the Lower Ordovician Ogdensburg Formation: evidence for a Paleozoic thermal anomaly in the St. Lawrence Lowlands of New York and Ontario. In Basin-wide fluid flow and associated diagenetic patterns: integrated petrologic, geochemical, and hydrologic considerations (eds Montanez, I., Skelton, K. & Greggs, J.), pp. 207–18. SEPM Special Publication no. 57.Google Scholar
Bernstein, L. 1992. A revised stratigraphy of the Lower–Middle Ordovician Beekmantown Group, St. Lawrence lowlands, Quebec and Ontario. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 29, 2677–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bjerstedt, T. W. & Erickson, J. M. 1989. Trace fossils and bioturbation in peritidal facies of the Potsdam–Theresa Formations (Cambrian–Ordovician), northwest Adirondacks. Palaios 4, 203–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cady, W. M. 1945. Stratigraphy and structure of west-central Vermont. Geological Society of America Bulletin 56, 515–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chadwick, G. H. 1915. Post-Ordovician deformation in the St. Lawrence valley, New York. Geological Society of America Bulletin 26, 287–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chadwick, G. H. 1920. The Paleozoic rocks of the Canton quadrangle. New York State Museum Bulletin 217–218, 60 pp.Google Scholar
Cherichetti, L., Doolan, B. & Mehrtens, C. 1998. The Pinnacle Formation: a late Precambrian rift valley fill with implications for Iapetus rift basin evolution. Northeastern Geology and Environmental Sciences 20, 175–85.Google Scholar
Clark, T. H. 1966. Châteauguay area – Châteaugay, Huntingdon, Beauharnois, Napierville, and St. Jean counties. Ministère des Richesses Naturelles du Québec, Rapport Géologique 122, 63 pp.Google Scholar
Clark, T. H. 1972. Montreal area. Ministère des Richesses Naturelles du Québec, Rapport Géologique 152, 244 pp.Google Scholar
Clark, T. H. & Eakins, P. R. 1968. The stratigraphy of the Sutton area of southern Quebec. In Studies of Appalachian Geology: Northern and Maritime (eds Zen, E., White, W. S., Hadley, J. B. & Thompson, J. B. Jr), pp. 163–73. New York: Interscience Publishers.Google Scholar
Clarke, J. M. & Schuchert, C. 1899. The nomenclature of the New York series of geological formations. Science 10 (new series), 876, 877.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cushing, H. P. & Ruedemann, R. 1914. Geology of Saratoga Springs and vicinity. New York State Museum Bulletin 169, 177 pp.Google Scholar
Cushing, H. P., Fairchild, H. L., Ruedemann, R. & Smyth, C. H. Jr. 1910. Geology of the Thousand Islands region – Alexandria Bay, Cape Vincent, Clayton, Grindstone and Theresa quadrangles. New York State Museum Bulletin 145, 194 pp.Google Scholar
Dalziel, J. W. D., Salada, L. H. D. & Gahagan, L. M. 1994. Paleozoic Laurentian–Gondwana interaction and the origin of the Appalachian–Andean mountain system. Geological Society of America Bulletin 106, 243–52.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deiss, C. 1939. Cambrian stratigraphy and trilobites of northwestern Montana. Geological Society of America Special Papers 18, 135 pp.Google Scholar
Dix, G. R., Salad Hersi, O. & Nowlan, G. S. 2004. The Potsdam–Beekmantown Group boundary, Nepean Formation type section (Ottawa, Ontario): a cryptic sequence boundary, not a conformable transition. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 41, 897–902.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Emmons, E. 1838. Report of the Second Geological District of the State of New York. New York State Geologist Second Annual Report, pp. 185–252.Google Scholar
Emmons, E. 1841. Report of the Second Geological District of the State of New York. New York State Geologist Fifth Annual Report, pp. 113–36.Google Scholar
Emmons, E. 1844. The Taconic system. Pamphlet 4. Albany, NY (publisher unnamed), 67 pp.Google Scholar
Emmons, E. 1860. Manual of Geology. Philadelphia (publisher not named), 290 pp.Google Scholar
Fisher, D. W. 1956. The Cambrian System of New York. In El Sistema Cambrico, su paleogragrafia y el problema de su base (ed. Rodgers, J.), pp. 321–51. 20th International Geological Congress Symposium, Part II, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Fisher, D. W. 1968. Geology of the Plattsburgh and Rouses Point, New York–Vermont quadrangles. New York State Museum Map and Chart Series 10, 37 pp.Google Scholar
Fisher, D. W. 1977. Correlation of the Hadrynian, Cambrian, and Ordovician rocks in New York State. New York State Museum Map and Chart Series 25, 75 pp.Google Scholar
Fisher, D. W., Isachsen, Y. W. & Rickard, L. V. 1970. Geologic map of New York – Adirondack sheet.New York State Museum Map and Chart Series 15.Google Scholar
Fisher, D. W., Isachsen, Y. W. & Rickard, L. V. 1971. Generalized tectonic–metamorphic map of New York. New York State Museum Map and Chart Series 16.Google Scholar
Flower, R. 1964. The nautiloid order Ellesmeroceratida (Cephalopoda). New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources Memoir 12, 234 pp.Google Scholar
Franzi, D. A., Rayburn, J. A., Yansa, C. H. & Knuepfer, P. N. K. 2002. Late Wisconsinan lacustrine and marine history of the Champlain Lowland and its paleoclimate implications. In Joint meeting of the New England Intercollegiate Geological Conference (94th Annual Meeting) and New York Geological Society (74th Annual Meeting) (eds McLelland, J. & Karabinos, P.), pp. A5/1–A/512. Guidebook for Field Trips in New York and Vermont, Union College, Schenectady, New York.Google Scholar
Fritz, W. H. 1971. Geological setting of the Burgess Shale. Proceedings of the North American Paleontological Convention 2, 1155–70.Google Scholar
Gates, A. E., Valentino, D. W., Chiarenzelli, J. R., Solar, G. S. & Hamilton, M. A. 2004. Exhumed Himalayan-type syntaxis in the Grenville orogen, northeastern Laurentia. Journal of Geodynamics 37, 337–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geyer, G. 1996. The Moroccan fallotaspid trilobites revisited. Beringeria 18, 89–199.Google Scholar
Geyer, G. & Palmer, A. R. 1995. Neltneriidae and Holmiidae (Trilobita) from Morocco and the problem of Early Cambrian intercontinental correlation. Journal of Paleontology 69, 459–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Globensky, Y. 1982. Région de Vaudreuil. Ministère de l'Énergie et des Ressources, Québec, Rapport Géologique 199, 63 pp.Google Scholar
Globensky, Y. 1987. Géologie des Basses-Terres du Saint-Laurent. Ministère de l'Énergie et des Ressources, Québec, Rapport MM85-02, 63 pp.Google Scholar
Hall, J. 1859. New American trilobites from the Hudson River Group of Vermont. Canadian Journal, New Series 4, 491–3.Google Scholar
Hall, J. & Whitfield, R. P. 1877. Paleontology: fossils of the Potsdam Group. U.S. Geological Exploration of the 40th Parallel Report 4, 199–231.Google Scholar
Hofmann, H. J. 1972. Stratigraphy of the Montreal area. 24th International Geological Congress, Montreal, Field Trip Guidebook B-03, 34 pp.Google Scholar
Isachsen, Y. W., Kelly, W. M., Sinton, C., Coish, R. A. & Heitzler, M. T. 1988. Dikes of the northeast Adirondack region – introduction to their distribution, orientation, mineralogy, chronology, magnetism, chemistry and mystery. New York State Geological Association, 60th Annual Meeting, Field Trip Guidebook, pp. 215–44.Google Scholar
Kindle, C. H. & Tasch, P. 1948. Lower Cambrian fossils of the Monkton Formation of Vermont. Canadian Field-Naturalist 62, 133–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirchgasser, W. & Theokritoff, G. 1971. Precambrian and Lower Paleozoic stratigraphy, northwest Saint Lawrence and north Jefferson counties, New York. New York State Geological Association, Annual Meeting, Field Trip Guidebook, pp. B1–B24.Google Scholar
Krynine, P. D. 1948. Possible Algonkian in New York State. Geological Society of America Bulletin 59, 1333–4.Google Scholar
Kumarapeli, P. S. 1985. Vestiges of Iapetus rifting in the craton west of the northern Appalachians. Geosciences Canada 12, 54–9.Google Scholar
Kumarapeli, P. S. & Saull, V. A. 1966. The St. Lawrence valley system: a North American equivalent to the East African rift valley system. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 3, 639–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Landing, E. 1983. Highgate gorge: upper Cambrian and lower Ordovician continental slope deposition and biostratigraphy, northwestern Vermont. Journal of Paleontology 57, 1149–87.Google Scholar
Landing, E. 2007. Ediacaran–Ordovician of East Laurentia – geologic setting and controls on deposition along the New York Promontory region. In Ediacaran–Ordovician of East Laurentia – S. W. Ford memorial volume (ed. Landing, E.), pp. 5–24. New York State Museum Bulletin no. 510.Google Scholar
Landing, E., Bowring, S. A., Davidek, K., Westrop, S. R., Geyer, G. & Heldmaier, W. 1998. Duration of the early Cambrian: U–Pb ages of volcanic ashes from Avalon and Gondwana. In Cambrian subdivisions and correlations (ed. Landing, E.), pp. 329–38. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 35.Google Scholar
Landing, E., Franzi, D. A., Hagadorn, J. W., Westrop, S. R., Kröger, B. & Dawson, J. C. 2007. Cambrian of East Laurentia: field workshop in eastern New York and western Vermont. In Ediacaran–Ordovician of East Laurentia – S. W. Ford memorial volume (ed. Landing, E.), pp. 25–80. New York State Museum Bulletin no. 510.Google Scholar
Landing, E. & Westrop, S. R. 2006. Early Ordovician faunas, stratigraphy, and sea-level history of the middle Beekmantown Group, northeastern New York. Journal of Paleontology 80, 958–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Landing, E., Westrop, S. R. & Knox, L. A. 1996. Conodonts, stratigraphy, and sea-level changes of the Tribes Hill Formation (lower Ordovician, east-central New York). Journal of Paleontology 70, 656–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lavoie, D., Burden, E. & Lebel, D. 2003. Stratigraphic framework for the Cambrian–Ordovician rift and passive margin succession from southern Quebec to western Newfoundland. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 40, 177–205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, D. W. 1971. Qualitative petrographic interpretation of the Potsdam Sandstone (Cambrian), southwestern Quebec. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 8, 853–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lochman, C. 1968. Crepicephalus faunule from the Bonneterre Dolomite (upper Cambrian) of Missouri. Journal of Paleontology 42, 1153–62.Google Scholar
Marcou, J. 1888. The Taconic of Georgia and the report on the geology of Vermont. Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History 4, 105–31.Google Scholar
McRae, L. E., Johnson, G. D. & Johnson, N. M. 1986. Temporal reevaluation of late Hadrynian non-marine facies in the Adirondack border region, New York State, southeastern Ontario, and southwestern Quebec. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs 18 (1), 54.Google Scholar
Meek, F. B. 1874. Report on invertebrate fossils. In Preliminary Geographic and Geologic Exploration and Survey west of the 100th Meridian (ed. White, C. A.), pp. 6–34. U.S. Geological Survey.Google Scholar
Mehrtens, C. J. 1987. Stratigraphy of the Cambrian platform in northwestern Vermont. In Centennial field trip guide. Volume 5 (ed. Roy, C. J.), pp. 229–32. Geological Society of America, Northeastern Section.Google Scholar
Nelson, A. E., Wiesnet, D. R., Carswell, L. D. & Postel, A. W. 1956. Geologic map of the Chateaugay quadrangle, New York. U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Geologic Investigations, Map I-168.Google Scholar
North American Commission on Stratigraphic Nomenclature. 1983. North American Stratigraphic Code. American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin 67, 841–75.Google Scholar
Otvos, E. G. Jr. 1966. Sedimentary structures and depositional environments, Potsdam Formation, upper Cambrian. Bulletin of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists 50, 159–85.Google Scholar
Palmer, A. R. & Gatehouse, C. G. 1972. Early and middle Cambrian trilobites from Antarctica. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper, Report P 0456-D, 37 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peng, S. C., Babcock, L. E., Robison, R. A., Lin, H. R., Rees, M. N. & Saltzman, M. R. 2004. Global standard stratotype-section and point (GSSP) of the Furongian Series and Paibaian Stage (Cambrian). Lethaia 37, 365–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Postel, A. W., Wiesnet, D. R. & Nelson, A. E. 1959. Geologic map of the Malone quadrangle, New York. U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Geologic Investigations, Map I-167.Google Scholar
Poulsen, C. 1927. The Cambrian, Ozarkian, and Canadian faunas of northwest Greenland. Meddelelser om Grønland 70, 233–343.Google Scholar
Rasetti, F. 1951. Middle Cambrian stratigraphy and faunas of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 116, 1–277.Google Scholar
Rasetti, F. 1963. Middle Cambrian ptychoparoid trilobites from the conglomerates of Quebec. Journal of Paleontology 37, 575–94.Google Scholar
Rayburn, J. A., Knuepfer, P. L. K. & Franzi, D. A. 2005. A series of late Wisconsinan meltwater floods through the Champlain and Hudson valleys, New York. In Re-assessing the role of meltwater processes during Quaternary glaciations (eds Fisher, T. G. & Russell, A. J.), pp. 2410–19. Quaternary Science Reviews 24.Google Scholar
Resser, C. E. 1935. Nomenclature of some Cambrian trilobites. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 93 (5), 1–46.Google Scholar
Resser, C. E. 1937. Third contribution to nomenclature on Cambrian trilobites. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 95 (22), 59 pp.Google Scholar
Resser, C. E. 1938. Cambrian System (restricted) of the southern Appalachians. Geological Society of America Special Paper 15, 140 pp.Google Scholar
Richter, R. 1933. Crustacea. Handwörterbuch der Naturwissenschaften, 2, pp. 840–64. University of Jena.Google Scholar
Salad Hersi, O. & Lavoie, D. 2000. Pre-Cairnside Formation carbonate-rich sandstone: an evidence for a Cambrian carbonate platform in southwestern Quebec? Current Research, Geological Survey of Canada 2000-D, 1–10.Google Scholar
Salad Hersi, O., Lavoie, D., Mohamed, A. H. & Nowlan, G. S. 2002. Subaerial unconformity at the Potsdam–Beekmantown contact in the Quebec Reentrant: regional significance for the Laurentian continental margin. Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology 50, 419–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salad Hersi, O., Lavoie, D. & Nowlan, G. S. 2003. Reappraisal of the Beekmantown Group sedimentology and stratigraphy, Montreal, southwestern Quebec: implications for understanding the depositional evolution of the lower–middle Ordovician Laurentian passive margin of eastern Canada. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 40, 149–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sandford, B. V. 1993. St. Lawrence platform – geology. In Sedimentary cover of the craton in Canada (eds Scott, D. F. & Aitken, J. D.), pp. 723–86. Geological Survey of Canada, Geology of Canada, No. 5.Google Scholar
Selleck, B. W. 1978. Paleoenvironments of the Potsdam Sandstone and Theresa Formation of the southwestern St. Lawrence Lowland. In New York State Geological Association Field Trip Guidebook, 50th Annual Meeting, St. Lawrence University, pp. 173–83.Google Scholar
Shaw, A. B. 1955. Paleontology of northwestern Vermont. V. The lower Cambrian fauna. Journal of Paleontology 29, 775–805.Google Scholar
Shaw, A. B. 1958. Stratigraphy and structure of the St. Albans area, northwestern Vermont. Geological Society of America Bulletin 69, 519–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sundberg, F. A. 1991. Paleogeography of western Utah and eastern Nevada during the Ehmaniella Biochron (middle Cambrian). In Paleozoic paleogeography of the western United States, II (eds Cooper, J. D. & Stevens, C. H.), pp. 387–99. Society of Economic Paleontologists, Pacific Section, 67.Google Scholar
Sundberg, F. A. 1994. Corynexochida and Prychopariida (Trilobite, Arthropoda) of the Ehmaniella Biozone (middle Cambrian), Utah and Nevada. Contributions in Science, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County 446, 137 pp.Google Scholar
Swinnerton, H. H. 1915. Suggestions for a revised classification of trilobites. Geological Magazine (New Series) 2, 407–96, 538–45.Google Scholar
Thomas, W. A. 1977. Evolution of the Appalachian–Ouachita salients and recesses from reentrants and promontories in the continental margin. American Journal of Science 277, 1233–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vogdes, A. W. 1893. A classification and annotated bibliography of the Paleozoic Crustacea, 1698–1892, to which is added a catalogue of North American species. Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences 1907, 412 pp.Google Scholar
Walcott, C. D. 1890. The fauna of the lower Cambrian or Olenellus Zone. U.S. Geological Survey Tenth Annual Report 1888–1889, pp. 509–763.Google Scholar
Walcott, C. D. 1891. Correlation papers, Cambrian. U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 81, 477 pp.Google Scholar
Walcott, C. D. 1912. New York Potsdam–Hoyt fauna. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 57, 251–304.Google Scholar
Walcott, C. D. 1924. Cambrian geology and paleontology, V, No. 2, Cambrian and lower Ozarkian trilobites. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 75, 51–60.Google Scholar
Wiesnet, D. R. 1961. Composition, grain size, roundness, and sphericity of the Potsdam Sandstone (Cambrian) in northeastern New York. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology 31, 5–14.Google Scholar
Wiesnet, D. R. & Clark, T. H. 1966. The bedrock structure of Covey Hill and vicinity, northern New York and southern Quebec. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 550-D, D35–D38.Google Scholar
Wilmarth, M. G. 1938. Lexicon of geologic names of the United States (including Alaska). U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 896, 2396 pp.Google Scholar
Wilson, A. E. 1946. Geology of the Ottawa–St. Lawrence Lowland, Ontario and Quebec. Canada Geological Survey Memoir 241, 65 pp.Google Scholar
Wolf, R. R. & Dalrymple, R. W. 1984. Sedimentology of the Cambro-Ordovician sandstones of eastern Ontario. Ontario Geological Survey Miscellaneous Paper 121, 240–52.Google Scholar
Young, G. A. & Ludvigsen, R. 1989. Mid-Cambrian trilobites from the lowest part of the Cow Head Group, western Newfoundland. Geological Survey of Canada Bulletin 392, 49 pp.Google Scholar