Meguma Terrane Revisited: Stratigraphy, Metamorphism, Paleontology, and Provenance.

The article discusses a field trip which highlights the unique geology of the Meguma terrane of southern Nova Scotia, the most easterly component of the northern Appalachian orogen. The Meguma terrane is described as a thick package of Early Cambrian to Early Ordovician turbiditic metasandstone and slate, locally overlain unconformably by a thin sequence of slate, quartzite and volcanic rocks. It suggests that the Meguma terrane was formed in a rift between Gondwana and Avalonia as shown by the stratigraphic differences across the Chebogue Point shear zone together with similarities to Avalonian detrital zircon populations, juvenile Nd isotopic compositions and sparse faunal evidence indicating Avalonian affinity.