Type Geological formation Country Canada Region Cumberland Basin Named for Pictou County | Other mudstone, siltstone Named by Bell, W.A., 1926 Primary Sandstone Overlies Cumberland Group | |
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Sub-units Balfron Formation, Tatamagouche Formation, Cape John Formation Thickness up to 3,000 metres (9,840 ft) | ||
Pictou group 7 pm
The Pictou Group is a stratigraphical unit of Late Carboniferous to Permian age in the Cumberland Basin of Atlantic Canada.
Contents
It takes the name from Pictou County, Nova Scotia, and was first described in outcrop along the West Branch River John by W.A. Bell in 1926.
Lithology
The Pictou Group is composed of red beds sandstone, mostly subarkose and sublitharenite. Siltstone is also present, also rarely conglomerate and coal. Fossil remains include bivalves, ostracods, fish, amphibians and reptiles fragments, as well as rare plant fragments.
Distribution
The Pictou Group is present throughout the Maritimes Basin, thickness vary from 1,650 metres (5,410 ft) in Pictou County to 3,000 metres (9,840 ft) in Prince Edward Island.
Relationship to other units
Th Pictou Group contains the Balfron, the Tatamagouche, and the Cape John Formations.
The Formation is mostly exposed in outcrops or covered with glacial till. It unconformably overlays the pre-Carboniferous Cumberland Group or the Mississippian Windsor Group.
It is equivalent to the Morien Group of Cape Breton and Stellarton Group on central Nova Scotia. The Pictou Group is also synonym to the Prince Edward Island Group (include the Miminegash, Egmont Bay, Kildare Capes, Hillsborough River and Orby Head formations.