The stratigraphy and structural history of the Mesozoic and Cenozoic of the Central Nova Scotian Slope, Eastern Canada

The continental shelf and slope of Nova Scotia is underlain by a number of interconnected rift sub-basins that collectively form the Scotian Basin. Petroleum exploration companies have been moderately successful on the shelf region of the basin, close to Sable Island, where several significant hydrocarbon discoveries have lead to the development of the Sable Project. This success has sparked interest in exploration of the adjacent frontier slope region within water depths between 200 and 2500m. However, the Scotian Slope Basin has been the focus of only limited regional geologic studies. Present accounts of the slope are largely extrapolated from shelf descriptions and/or modeled after play types and depositional systems typically associated with deep water exploration in other Atlantic margin areas. A discrete study area was defined for this project within the central slope region approximately 125 kilometres southwest of Sable Island. The area is approximately 120 square kilometres and contains five of the ten Scotian Slope exploration wells, three shelf wells and 4 500 kilometres of 2D seismic data.; Scotian Basin development commenced in the Late Triassic - Early Jurassic with rifting of the Pangean Supercontinent and opening of the Atlantic Ocean. Red bed and evaporate deposition characterized the rift phase, while the drift phase was characterized by clastic progradational with periods of carbonate deposition. A prominent carbonate bank developed in the western part of the basin during the Late Jurassic, the eastern extent of which was limited by a Late Jurassic - Early Cretaceous Sable Delta. As relative sea level rose throughout the Late Cretaceous and Tertiary major transgressive sequences were deposited. This overall transgression was punctuated by major sea level drops resulting in the deposition of regressive lowstand sequences partially comprising turbidite deposits. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...