Type Locality:

Weldon Creek, from the confluence with Frederick Brook to the mouth of Peck Creek and up Peck Creek for about 1 km, Albert County, New Brunswick (NTS 21 H/15E).

Distribution:

The member outcrops in the vicinity of Belliveau and Gautreau villages, Westmorland County, and along Weldon Creek and its tributaries to a point just east of Rosevale, Albert County (all NTS 21 H/15). Correlative rocks also outcrop in two belts in Kings County. One belt extends from the vicinity of Waterford (NTS 21 H/11) through Sussex (NTS 21 H/12) to the Peekaboo Corner area (NTS 21 H/12). Another belt extends from Springfield (NTS 21 H/12) through Lower Millstream (NTS 21 H/12) and Mount Middleton (NTS 21 H/13) into the Smiths Creek area (NTS 21 H/14). Thickness in the type section is about 450 m, but it varies considerably from locality to locality.

Lithology:

At the type section, the Weldon Member consists of two unnamed units. The lower unit is dark reddish-brown, fine- to coarse-grained, calcareous sandstone, mudstone, and caliche with minor pebbly sandstone and conglomerate. The upper unit is dark reddish-brown, calcareous, hackly fractured mudstone.

Relationship:

In most places, the Weldon Member gradationally overlies the Lower Carboniferous Albert and Gautreau formations, with the contact placed, respectively, at the top of the last oil shale, and glauberite bearing, strata. It is unconformable on pre-Carboniferous rocks and is either unconformable on, or in faulted contact with, the Albert Formation in the vicinity of Albert Mines (NTS 21 H/15E). The Weldon Member is the lower of two members in the Moncton Formation; it is disconformably and locally unconformably overlain by the Hillsborough Member. It is also unconformably overlain by the Upper Carboniferous Enragé Formation of the Hopewell Group.

History:

Rocks of the Weldon Member were included in the "new red sandstone" of Gesner (1840, p.51) and in the "lower coal measures" of Dawson (1855a, p.196) west and east, respectively, of the Petitcodiac River. Bailey and Ells (1878) described a sequence of rocks, Division IV of their "Lower Carboniferous Formation", which was roughly equivalent to the Weldon. Young (1912) included rocks of the Weldon in the "lowest division" in his Intermediate Group, which consisted of all rocks above the Albert Formation and below the Millstone Grit. Wright (1922) distinguished two units that he called the Weldon Series and Boyd Series. Wright (1922) recognized three zones in the Weldon Series (from oldest to youngest): (1) coarse poorly sorted conglomerate, (2) a fining-upward sequence of dark red shales and sandstones, and (3) dark red hackly shales; and five zones in the Boyd Series: (1) red shale and red arkosic sandstone, (2) purple volcanic ash, (3) red and green shale, (4) purple volcanic ash, and (5) red fine- to coarse-grained arkosic sandstone and shale with red conglomerate near the base. Bell (1927a) introduced the term Weldon Formation. Norman (1941a) assigned zones 1 to 4 of Wright's Boyd Series to the Weldon Formation and zone 5 to the Hillsborough Formation. Gussow (1953) re-assigned zones 2 to 4, essentially a volcanic unit (a tuff), to the Hillsborough Formation. McLeod (1980) concluded that the tuff is included in some places in the Weldon Member, but elsewhere in the Hillsborough Member and Albert Formation. He also excluded zone 1 of Wright's Weldon Series from the Weldon and gave it formation status, naming it the Round Hill Formation. Kelley (in Poole et al., 1970) and van de Poll (1972) suggested that the rank of the Weldon be reduced to a member in the Moncton Formation and make the Moncton part of the Horton Group. Others (McLeod, 1979, 1980; McCutcheon, 1978, 1981b) have adhered to the usage of Gussow (1953) in calling them formations, not members.

Other Citations:

Bailey and Ells, 1878; Bell, 1927a; Dawson, 1855a; Gesner, 1840; Gussow, 1953; McCutcheon, 1978, 1981b; McLeod, 1979, 1980; Norman, 1932, 1941a; Poole et al., 1970; van de Poll, 1972; Wright, 1922; Young, 1912.

References:

Bailey, L.W. and Ells, R.W., 1878. Report on the Lower Carboniferous belt of Albert and Westmorland counties, New Brunswick, including the "Albert Shales"; Geological Survey of Canada, Report of Progress for 1876-77, pp. 351-401.

Bell, W.A., 1927a. Outline of Carboniferous stratigraphy and geologic history of the Maritime Provinces of Canada: Proceedings and Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, Third Series, vol. 21, section 4, pp. 75-108.

Dawson, J.W., 1855a. Acadian Geology; an account of the geological structure and mineral resources of Nova Scotia, and portions of the neighbouring provinces of British America; Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh, 388 p.

Gesner, A., 1840. Second report on the geological survey of the Province of New Brunswick; Saint John, New Brunswick, 76 p.

Gussow, W.C., 1953. Carboniferous stratigraphy and structural geology of New Brunswick, Canada; American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG), AAPG Bulletin, vol. 37, no. 7 (July), pp. 1713-1816.

McCutcheon, S.R. 1978. Geology of the Apohaqui-Markhamville area, map-area R-25. New Brunswick Department of Natural Resources, Mineral Resources Branch, Map Report 78-5, 41 pages.

McCutcheon, S.R., 1981b. Stratigraphy and paleogeography of the Windsor Group in southern New Brunswick; New Brunswick Department of Natural Resources, Mineral Resources Branch, Open File Report 81-31, 210 p.

McLeod, M.J., 1979. The geology of Campobello Island, southwestern New Brunswick: Unpublished M.Sc. thesis, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick, 181 p.

McLeod, M.J., 1980. Geology and mineral deposits of the Hillsbourough area, map-area V-22 and V-23: New Brunswick Department of Natural Resources, Mineral Resources Branch, Map Report 79- 6, 35 p.

Norman, G.W.H. 1932. Stratigraphy of the Stoney Creek oil and gas field, New Brunswick; pp. 167-173: in Oil and Gas in Eastern Canada, Geological Survey of Canada, Economic Geology, Series no. 9, 187 p.

Norman, G.W.H. 1941a. Hillsborough, Albert and Westmorland counties, New Brunswick; Geological Survey of Canada, Map 647A.

Poole, W.H., Sanford, B.V., Williams, H., and Kelley, D.G., 1970. Geology of southeastern Canada, pp. 228-304: in R.J.W. Douglas (ed.), Geology and Economic Minerals of Canada; Geological Survey of Canada, Economic Geology Report 1, 5th Edition, 838 p.

Wright, W.J., 1922. Geology of the Moncton map-area; Geological Survey of Canada, Memoir 129, 69 p.

Young, G.A., 1912. Geology of the Moncton map-area, Westmorland and Albert counties, New Brunswick; Geological Survey of Canada, Summary Report 1911, pp. 309-321.

van de Poll, H.W., 1972. Stratigraphy and economic geology of Carboniferous basins in the Maritime Provinces: in International Geological Congress, Twenty-fourth session, Field Excursion A60, 96 p.