the stratigraphy and structural history of the mesozoic and cenozoic ...

1.2 Background and Previous Work
There is limited government and academic literature that discusses the Scotian
Slope area and setting based on recent drilling information and seismic data. However,
there are specific papers that describe and discuss the adjacent Scotian Shelf and regional
basins. In recent years exploration groups of several oil and gas companies have
produced the majority of publicly available information pertaining to the slope region,
mostly as short articles or conference presentations.
Modern exploration of the Scotian Shelf commenced in 1948 when ships of the
Lamont Geological Survey, under the direction of Maurice Ewing, carried out seismic
refraction surveys across much of Canada’s southeastern continental shelf (Sherwin,
1973). The results of this study, and those of two subsequent voyages in 1950 and 1951,
were first published in 1954 by Drake et al., Officer and Ewing, and Press and
Beckmann. These studies provided evidence that Eastern Canada’s Continental Margin
was comprised of a thick sedimentary succession overlying a basement complex of high
velocity igneous and metamorphic rocks (Sherwin, 1973).
The Canadian Government first became involved in geological investigation of
Canada’s eastern continental margin in 1955 when the Nova Scotia Research Foundation
and Dominion Observatory conducted seismic refraction studies in the Sable Island area.
Results of these studies were published by Willomore and Tolmie (1956). In 1964 and
1965 Dalhousie University carried out deep refraction surveys on the Scotian Shelf,
continental slope and rise beyond (Barrett et al., 1964; Keen and Loncarevic, 1966).
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