During late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic times, Atlantic Canada occupied an interior position in the near-equatorial region of Pangea. The attachment of North America to this supercontinent began in the Early Devonian Period and is represented in Atlantic Canada by the Acadian Orogeny, the result of the collision of the northeastern part of the North American continent and the continent of Africa. The collision created a large mountain belt with topography perhaps like the present-day Rocky Mountains of western Canada. The eroded roots of the Appalachian Mountains extend from the southeastern United States to Newfoundland, and they form the highland areas of Atlantic Canada.

Repeated marine invasions created thick deposits of limestones and evaporites. During the late Carboniferous, coal was deposited in extensive swamps. Carboniferous rocks contain abundant plant fossils and, at Joggins, bones of some of the world's earliest land vertebrates.

This Document Includes:

The Lower Carboniferous: Interior Mountain Valley and Sea
Paleogeography
Distribution
The Interior Valleys
The Interior Seas and Lakes
The Coal Age
Paleogeography
Occurrence
The "Maritime Disturbance"

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Additional Keywords:
Cobequid Hills, Windsor Group, Mabou Group (Canso Group), Riversdale Group, Horton Group, Morien Group, evaporite, limestone, limnetic basins, paralic basins, Joggins, Pictou field, Foord seam, Sydney coalfield.

Associated Topics:

T2.2 The Avalon and Meguma Zones
T12.3 Geology and Resources