Aborted Proterozoic rifting in eastern Newfoundland

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Abstract
Recent geological mapping and geochemical studies of the late Proterozoic rocks of the Burin Peninsula in the southwestern part of the Avalon Zone of Newfoundland show the following sequence: (1) The basal Rock Harbour Group, a sedimentary assemblage ranging from conglomerates to turbidites, was derived from a subaerial volcanic–plutonic source region. (2) The overlying Burin Group, a belt of mafic volcanic and intrusive rocks that have alkalic affinities at the base but are dominated by oceanic tholeiite. (3) The Marystown Group, a bimodal sequence of alkalic basalts and rhyolites deposited in a subaerial environment unconformably above the Burin Group, and apparently conformably overlain by Infracambrian to Cambrian sedimentary rocks. Stromatolites occur within resedimented limestone breccias and conglomerates at the top of the Rock Harbour Group and throughout the Burin Group.These assemblages are interpreted to indicate that after a period of continental type bimodal volcanism, the Avalon terrain was rifted in Burin Group times to form some kind of small ocean basin, which was abruptly closed with a reversion to continental type bimodal volcanism of the Marystown Group.

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