The Journal of Geology, May-June 1893: A Semi-Quarterly Magazone of Geology and Related SciencesVarious
Science
The Journal of Geology, May-June 1893: A Semi-Quarterly Magazone of Geology and Related Sciences
Various
Geology -- Periodicals
A general exploration of the area in question, and a more detailed
study of a small part of it--the Grenville District--situated in the
counties of Argenteuil and Terrebonne in the Province of Quebec, was
carried out by Logan and his assistants in the early years of the
Canadian Geological Survey. An excellent résumé of the results of these
studies is given in the “Geology of Canada,” published in 1863, which
contains not only a good description of the general petrographical
character and arrangement of the rocks which make up the area, but
is accompanied by an atlas containing two maps illustrating this
description, one showing the general distribution of the Laurentian in
the eastern part of the Dominion, and the other its stratigraphical
relations in the smaller area above referred to.
As a result of these studies, Logan announced his belief that the
Laurentian System consisted of two great unconformable series of
sedimentary rocks, to which he gave the names Upper and Lower
Laurentian. The latter he considered to be divisible into a lower
and an upper portion, which sub-divisions he regarded as probably
conformable to one another. In the course of time these several series
came to be known as the Anorthosite or Norian Series, the Grenville
Series and the Fundamental or Ottawa Gneiss. Logan’s views may then be
represented as follows:
Anorthosite or Norian Series, Upper Laurentian.
Grenville Series, Upper portion } Lower
Fundamental or Ottawa Gneiss, Lower portion } Laurentian.
Subsequently, in the southeastern corner of the Province of Ontario,
in the district lying to the north of the eastern end of Lake Ontario,
another series of rocks was discovered--the so-called Hastings Series.
Logan supposed this to come in above the Grenville Series, while
Vennor, who subsequently examined the district, believed it to be
equivalent to the lower part of the Grenville Series already mentioned.
When these investigations were carried out, the microscope had not
as yet been seriously employed in petrographical work. The precise
composition of many of the rocks making up the several series was not
recognized, the effects produced by great dynamic action were not duly
considered, and the foliation possessed in a high degree by some and
to a certain extent by almost all these rocks was considered, in all
cases, to be a more or less obliterated survival of original bedding.
The detailed mapping in the field, accompanied by microscopical work in
the laboratory, by which alone conclusive results can be obtained in
working out the structure of complicated areas of crystalline schists,
was not carried out, in fact in many districts the construction of
detailed maps was at that time practically impossible. It is not
surprising therefore that, although excellent in the main, some of the
results arrived at have since proved to be erroneous.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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