Carbonate platform to foreland basin: revised stratigraphy of the Table Head Group (Middle Ordovician), western Newfoundland

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Abstract
Carbonates of the Table Head Group and associated strata were deposited along the western margin of a foreland basin during initial stages of the Taconian Orogeny and record collapse and cannibalization of a long-live carbonate platform. The stratigraphy of Klapp, Opalinski, and James is here revised to reflect better understanding of lithologic units within this complex tectono-stratigraphic assemblage. The Table Head Group now contains only three formations: the Table Point and Table Cove formations, as orginally defined, and the Cape Cormorant Formation, redefined and restricted to western Port au Port Peninsula. Black Cove Formation shales are removed from the Table Head. Distinctive conglomerates once placed in the Cape Cormorant are now recognized as separate units within the overlying flysch and called the Daniel''s Harbour Member. The foreland basin developed in three stages: (1) fragmentation, uplift, and erosion of the platform and subsequent deposition of shall-water limestones (Table Point) on a tectonically unstable shelf; (2) foundering of platform blocks and deposition of deep-water-slope carbonates (Table Cove), basinal black shales (Black Cove), or conglomerates of older shelf carbonates shed from submarine cliffs (Cape Cormorant); and (3) siliciclastic sedimentation interrupted by sediment gravity flows of Table Head clasts shed from submarine escarpments (Daniel''s Harbour).