Late Silurian–Early Devonian tectonosedimentary history of the Gaspé Belt in the Gaspé Peninsula: from a transtensional Salinic basin to an Acadian foreland basin. Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geologists 49

The Gasp6 Belt is the largest middle Paleozoic belt in the Canadian Appalachians. The most complete stratigraphic record of Upper Ordovician to Middle Devonian rocks of this belt occurs in the Gasp6 Peninsula, in the northeastern part of the Qurbec re-entrant. Rocks of the Gasp6 Belt rest unconformably on Cambrian to Ordovician rocks of the Humber and Dunnage zones, and are unconformably overlain by Carboniferous rocks. The regional metamorphic grade of the Gasp6 Belt rocks is very low, and some units are still in the oil window. The deformation history of the Gasp6 Belt rocks comprises multi-stage deformation events represented by two phas-es. A Late Silurian to Early Devonian phase, the Salinic disturbance, manifested by an unconformity, NW-trending folding, synsedimentary faulting, and intra-plate volcanism. The late Early to Middle Devonian Acadian phase is recorded by NE-trending folding, cleavage development and both reverse and strike-slip faulting within a transpressive setting during the oblique continental collision between Laurentia nd Avalon (a peri-Gondwanan terrane), which took place farther southeast. The tectonic setting during the Salinic disturbance is consistent with continuous plate conver-gence (without subduction) after he Taconian Orogeny and before the Acadian continental collision. The paleogeographic maps of the Gasp6 Belt during Pridolian, Pragian and Emsian times reflect he tectonic activ-ity south of the Gasp6 Peninsula. The switch from sinistral to dextral relative motion between Laurentia nd Avalo