Implications of spore evidence for Late Devonian age of the Piskahegan Group, southwestern New Brunswick

Abstract

The predominantly volcanic Piskahegan Group has commonly been considered Early Carboniferous, based on its stratigraphic position. However, spores recently discovered in the Carrow Formation, an alluvial fan deposit in the exocaldera facies, indicate that most, if not all, of the group is of Late Devonian (late Famennian) age. The spore assemblage includes several species reported previously from Ireland, Belgium, and eastern Europe, some of them apparently restricted to the southern parts of the Old Red Sandstone Continent in Late Devonian time. Comparison of records of earliest occurrences suggests that the incoming of some species was diachronous. Volcanic rocks of the Piskahegan Group are coeval with post-Acadian, tin–tungsten-bearing granites elsewhere in New Brunswick and are considered the surface expression of plutonism that resulted from Acadian continental collison.