STRATIGRAPHIC RECORD IN THE FUNDY RIFT BASIN OF THE MANICOUAGAN IMPACT: BOLIDE WITH A BANG OR A WHIMPER?

The terrestrial redbeds of the Blomidon Formation were deposited in the Fundy rift basin during Norian to Hettangian time. A 10-m-thick zone of intensely deformed strata that occurs near the base of the formation is characterized by rubblization and step-wise faulting. Correlation of this zone basin-wide indicates that it is a record of a very powerful paleoseismic event. The greater thickness of the deformed zone in proximity to the border fault, the Minas Fault Zone (MFZ), indicates that movement of the MFZ was the immediate cause of this paleoseismicity. The presence in strata just above the deformed zone of quartz grains displaying features of shock metamorphism raises the intriguing possibility that reactivation of the MFZ was triggered by a bolide impact.

The ~100 km-wide Manicouagan impact structure in northeastern Canada, 700 km from the Fundy rift basin, is one of the largest well-documented impact sites. Once considered a candidate for the cause of the end-of-Triassic extinctions, U-Pb zircon dating of the impact melt establishes the age of the impact as much earlier Norian, approximately coeval with the seismic deformation of the Blomidon Formation. Stratigraphic constraint of the age of the impact allows an accurate assessment of the effects of this event on biota. The fact that no major extinction event is associated with the time interval established for this impact raises questions about the impact paradigm for biotic extinction.