r - Memorial University's Digital Archives Initiative - Memorial ...

72
fACIES AND BASIN ANA! YSIS
3 I INTROQJ JOlON
Facies and basin analysis were carried out with several objectives in mind:
I. To integrate the data gathered from the present siudy with previous work to tTy to
refine the foreland basin model for western Newfoundland;
2. To use field relationships and facies to examine hypotheses concerning Ihe
sedimentological relationship of the Goose Tickle group and Lo\\,'er Head Formation 10
the arrival of the Taconic allochthons.
Given the large number of units covered by this study, the wide region studied,
and the unsuitability of many of the exposures for vertical measurement, detailed facies
analyses were nOl carried out. Previous workers in the area had interpreted the Goose
Tickle group (Tuke 1966, 1968; Stevens, 1970) and Lower Head Formation (lames and
SteveM, 1986; Gonzalez-BoIlOTino, 1990) as having been deposited in d«p water by the
aClions of turbidity currents. Preliminaryinve5tigationsbylheaulhorindicatedthatlhese
interpretations are valid.
For Ihe purposes of this sludy it was deemed mosl appropriate to make use of Ihe
classification of Pickering et al. (1986) 10 arrive at a first order interpretation of the
depositional processes involved. These aulhors devised a classification for deep