Newly identified Carboniferous units (the Pointe Sawyer and Chemin-des-Pecheurs formations) in the Gaspe Peninsula, Quebec; implications regarding the evolution of the northwestern sector of the Maritimes Basin

The Upper Member of the Cannes-de-Roches Formation was recently recognized overlying the Bonaventure Formation in the New Carlisle area, over 100 km s outhwest of the previously documented exposures of this unit. Moreover, rem nants of the La Coulee Formation, which are unconformably overlain by the B onaventure Formation, have also been recognized underlying, with a similar type of contact, the Lower Member of the Cannes-de-Roches Formation. From t his and from facies similarities, the Lower and Middle members of the Canne s-de-Roches Formation are now considered to be equivalent to the Bonaventur e Formation. It is proposed to abandon these two member designations and to only keep the Bonaventure Formation. The remaining Upper Member of the Can nes-de-Roches Formation is renamed the Pointe Sawyer Formation. A late Vise an to early Namurian age is attributed to this grey clastic formation from spore analysis. Dark reddish-brown sandstone conformably overlie the Pointe Sawyer Formation in the Mal Bay area. They correspond to the beginning of sedimentation from more distant sources within the regional Carboniferous s tratigraphic succession, which was until then characterized by sedimentatio n from proximal sources. This previously unidentified unit is here referred to as the Chemin-des-Pecheurs Formation.