Geoscience Canada

Vol. 53 No. 3 (2026)
Articles

Cretaceous Inversion of the Fundy Basin, Atlantic Canada: Causes and Consequences

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  • David J.W. Piper,
  • Georgia Pe-Piper
David J.W. Piper
Natural Resources Canada, Geological Survey of Canada Atlantic, Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, B2Y 4A2
Georgia Pe-Piper
Department of Geology, Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3H 3C3
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12789/geocanj.2026.53.235

Published 2026-09-24

Keywords

  • CAMP basalt,
  • Chaswood Formation,
  • Hyperextension,
  • Intra-plate deformation,
  • Minas Fault Zone,
  • Regional unconformities
    • ...More
    Less

How to Cite

Piper, D. J., & Pe-Piper, G. (2026). Cretaceous Inversion of the Fundy Basin, Atlantic Canada: Causes and Consequences. Geoscience Canada, 53(3), 241–250. https://doi.org/10.12789/geocanj.2026.53.235
Copyright Notice

Abstract

It has been clear for two decades from seismic data and field studies that the Triassic–Jurassic Fundy Basin was later uplifted and eroded, a process known as basin inversion. Dextral slip along basin-bounding faults of the Minas Fault Zone chopped up the North Mountain Basalt into isolated basalt outcrops that show the same stratigraphy as in the type section on North Mountain. The inversion was not a local effect, but rather a consequence of the regional Cretaceous opening of the North Atlantic Ocean. The evidence includes dextral strike-slip faulting and syn-sedimentary deformation of the Early Cretaceous Chaswood Formation on land in central Nova Scotia and along strike in the Orpheus Graben; the resulting structures are similar to those in the inverted Fundy Basin. Regional unconformities of the same age, to the south in the Scotian Basin, marked progressive uplift of the Meguma terrane, which underlies the southern part of the Fundy Basin. This uplift is recorded in episodic drainage diversion, distinctive detrital mineralogy and reworked microfossils in Lower Cretaceous sedimentary rocks. The driver of this tectonic activity was crustal hyperextension during the opening of the Atlantic Ocean between Iberia and the Grand Banks, before true ocean-floor spreading began. The hyperextended zone is some 140 km wide in the southern Newfoundland Basin, narrowing northwards and pinching out between Flemish Cap and Galicia Bank. As a result, the Meguma terrane moved tens of kilometres westward relative to the more inboard Appalachian terranes, causing the inversion of the Fundy Basin.

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