ABSOLUTE AGE OF THE FISSET BROOK FORMATION AND THE DEVONIAN-MISSISSIPPIAN BOUNDARY, CAPE BRETON ISLAND, NOVA SCOTIA
The Fisset Brook formation of sedimentary and volcanic rocks crops out in the Cheticamp area of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Its stratigraphic age has been determined as earliest Mississippian using spores contained in the sedimentary members. A rubidium–strontium age determination using whole-rock samples of the volcanic members has yielded an age of 349 ± 15 million years. This is in good agreement with age determinations elsewhere for the Devonian–Mississippian boundary. Similar rocks exposed to the east of Lake Ainslie, some thirty miles to the southwest, give an identical age, 348 ± 20 million years. These rocks are clearly correlative with the Fisset Brook formation. Mixed sedimentary and volcanic rocks in the Cape St. Lawrence area, some thirty miles to the northeast of Fisset Brook, appear to be significantly older, 462 ± 25 million years, and should be considered tentatively as Ordovician in age.