Newly identified Carboniferous units (the Pointe Sawyer and Chemin-des-Pêcheurs formations) in the Gaspé Peninsula, Quebec; implications regarding the evolution of the northwestern sector of the Maritimes Basin

Abstract: The Upper Member of the Cannes-de-Roches Formation was recently recognized overlying the Bonaventure Formation in the New Carlisle area, over 100 km southwest of the previously documented exposures of this unit. Moreover, remnants of the La Coulée Formation, which are unconformably overlain by the Bonaventure Formation, have also been recognized underlying, with a similar type of contact, the Lower Member of the Cannes-de-Roches For-mation. From this and from facies similarities, the Lower and Middle members of the Cannes-de-Roches Formation are now considered to be equivalent to the Bonaventure Formation. It is proposed to abandon these two member designa-tions and to only keep the Bonaventure Formation. The remaining Upper Member of the Cannes-de-Roches Formation is renamed the Pointe Sawyer Formation. A late Viséan to early Namurian age is attributed to this grey clastic forma-tion from spore analysis. Dark reddish-brown sandstone conformably overlie the Pointe Sawyer Formation in the Mal Bay area. They correspond to the beginning of sedimentation from more distant sources within the regional Carbonifer-ous stratigraphic succession, which was until then characterized by sedimentation from proximal sources. This previ-ously unidentified unit is here referred to as the Chemin-des-Pêcheurs Formation. Résumé: Le Membre Supérieur de la Formation de Cannes-de-Roches a récemment été identifié recouvrant la Forma-tion de Bonaventure dans la région de New Carlisle, plus de 100 km au sud-ouest des affleurements qui furent anté-rieurement documentés pour cette unité. De plus, la couverture résiduelle discontinue de la Formation de La Coulée