Relationships between Precambrian and Lower Palaeozoic rocks of the ‘Avalon Platform’ in New Brunswick, the northeast Appalachians and the British Isles

The Avalon Platform, which is often assumed to be the southeastern margin of the Appalachian—Caledonian orogenic belt, is represented in New Brunswick by the Late Precambrian volcanic rocks of the Coldbrook Group underlain by the metacarbonates and gneisses of the Greenhead Group. The overlying Palaeozoic sequence has been affected by the Acadian (Siluro-Devonian) and Variscan orogenic movements. Granites and a dyke/sill swarm of possible Precambrian age intrude the metasedimentary and volcanic rocks. A pre-Acadian structural event in the Greenhead Group is associated with the local formation of migmatite gneisses. The New Brunswick succession is compared with Cape Breton, Newfoundland and the British Isles. An ensialic volcanic-arc model is proposed for the unified ‘Avalon Platform’ that, during the Late Precambrian, stretched from present-day southern Massachusetts to southern Britain as a microcontinent. The Acadian, Caledonian and Variscan orogenies and the later Mesozoic distentional movements resulted in the fragmentation of the platform.