Development and structure of the Kennetcook-Windsor basin, Nova Scotia, Atlantic Canada

• Main Author: Javaid, Khalid Mehmood
• Other Authors: Waldron, John (Earth and Atmospheric Sciences)
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: Kennetcook; Windsor; Maritimes; mudlog; modeling; seismic; petrel; minibasin
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10048/1940

The Kennetcook-Windsor basin is a part of the large composite Maritimes Basin in Atlantic Canada. Subsurface seismic data indicate a very complex basinal history in terms of syn-depositional deformation and superimposition of numerous episodes of fault reactivation in the basin. Faults mapped and correlated at the tops of basement, the Horton Bluff, and the Cheverie formations can be subdivided into six categories. On the basis of interpretation of seismic reflection geometries and fault modeling, at least six episodes of deformation are suggested in the Kennetcook-Windsor basin. Flower structures mapped in the subsurface clearly indicate a strike-slip setting that remained active during the entire history of the basin. Structural collapse features represented by high angle chaotic seismic reflections within the Windsor Group indicate evaporite withdrawal that played a key role in the creation of accommodation space for the Pennsylvanian sediments in the basin. A Two-way-time (TWT) structure map at the top of basement shows tilted fault-blocks stepping down to north and northeast. The TWT maps at the tops of the Horton Bluff and the Cheverie formations show a structural low in the central area and rising in the northeast, west, and south. However, the structural low on the top of the Cheverie Formation is narrower and indicates that the faults in the northeast were inverted more than those mapped on the top of the Horton Bluff Formation. Comparison of the thickness maps of the Horton Bluff and the Cheverie formations indicate an overall thickening in the north and northeast. Episodic dextral strike-slip movement on the basin-bounding fault (Minas Fault) controlled the basement architecture and the development of the basin. Probably oblique movement (SW-NE) on the local subsurface faults caused compartmentalization of the tilted fault-blocks within the Horton and Windsor groups.