Unit Name: Mabou Group
Unit Type: Lithostratigraphic
Rank: Group
Status: Formal
Usage: Currently in use
Age Interval: Late Carboniferous (318.1 - 299 ma)
Age Justification: Norman (1935) assigned rocks of the Mabou Group to the Late Carboniferous (Pennsylvanian). Neves and Belt (1970) believed that spore assemblages from the type area were Namurian A and B in age.
Province/Territory: New Brunswick; Nova Scotia
Originator: Norman, 1935; revised by Belt, 1964.
Type Locality:
Along the southwest Mahou River, between Southwest Port Hood and Southwest Mabou, near Mabou, Inverness County, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia (NTS 11 K/3, 11 F/14).
Distribution:
Norman (1935) estimated the thickness to be 884 m in the type section, which is incomplete at the top. The group has been mapped only in the type area.
Lithology:
Interstratified, fine- to medium-grained, red and grey sandstone and shale.
Relationship:
The Mabou Group concordantly overlies the Lower Carboniferous Windsor Group in most areas, but the contact ranges from conformable to disconformable. In some areas, the Mabou rests unconformably upon the ?Devonian to Lower Carboniferous Horton Group. The contact with the overlying middle to Upper Carboniferous Port Hood Formation is conformable.
History:
The name Mabou Formation was first introduced and defined by Norman (1935). Rocks of the Mabou Formation were originally included in the Hawkesbury Series (Bell, 1926), which was divided into the Mabou and Port Hood formations. The Mabou was upgraded to group status by Belt (1964) and applied, with revised subdivisions, throughout Nova Scotia as a replacement for the Canso and Riversdale groups. It has not been adopted as such by all workers.
Other Citations:
Bell, 1926; Belt, 1964; Neves and Belt, 1970; Norman, 1935.
Source: LEXICON_NB
Entry Reviewed: Yes
Name Set: Lithostratigraphic Lexicon
LastChange: 06 Mar 2014