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

2.1 Geography
Chapter 2
Geography, Stratigraphy and Structure
The Scotian Basin extends 1200 kilometers along Atlantic Canada’s eastern
seaboard from the Yarmouth Arch and the Unites States border in the southwest to the
Avalon Uplift on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland in the northeast (Figure 2-1). The
primary structural elements of the Scotian Basin region are typical of a passive
continental margin with a shallow basement platform and ridges flanking deep marginal
sedimentary basins and farther seaward, beyond the continental shelf and slope, a deep
water oceanic basin.
The Scotian Basin has an average width of 250 kilometres and a total area of
approximately 300,000 square kilometers. Half of the basin is situated below the present
day continental shelf while the other half lies beneath the present continental slope. The
Scotian Shelf is defined as the part of the continental margin contained in water depths
less than 200 m. The Scotian Slope, representing the transition from the continental shelf
to the abyssal plain, extends from the 200 m isobath to depths exceeding 4000 m
(Kidston et. al., 2002). The average declivity of the central slope is 2.5° (Sherwin, 1973).
Below the slope lies the Slope Diapiric Province, a distinct geological area containing
autochthonous and allochthonous salt that trends along the margin of Nova Scotia and
into the western Grand Banks. The area north of the Laurentian Channel and the
Newfoundland Transfer Fault has geologic affiliation with the Scotian Basin but
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