BONAVENTURE FORMATION (Early Carboniferous)
PERCÉ GROUP
The type locality of the Bonaventure Formation is Île Bonaventure off the eastern tip of Gaspé Peninsula at Percé, Québec.
The Bonaventure Formation consists of reddish brown and green conglomerate, sandstone and shale; minor grey and reddish brown limestone.
The Bonaventure Formation can be traced more-or-less continuously from Percé on the eastern tip of the Gaspé Peninsula, westward along the north and south shores of Chaleur Bay as far as Belledune, New Brunswick. Good exposures are also present on Heron Island, offshore of New Mills. Farther inland, an outlier of Carboniferous rocks assigned to the Bonaventure Formation is present along Tetagouche River at Tetagouche Lakes. The Bonaventure Formation is about 180 m thick on Île Bonaventure, about 250 m thick near Percé, about 125 m thick near Miguasha, and about 16 m thick in the Chandler area of Québec. In New Brunswick, a gently-dipping 46 m succession is exposed on the Chaleur Bay coast at Charlo. Flat-lying beds at elevations over a vertical range of 180 m near Dalhousie are reported.
The Bonaventure Formation lies with slight discordance on the Late Devonian Miguasha Group in the western part of Chaleur Bay (southern Gaspé Peninsula). Elsewhere it lies with profound unconformity on the Early Devonian Gaspé Limestone, Gaspé Sandstones and Dalhousie groups, the Silurian Quinn Point, Chaleurs, Dickie Cove, and Petit Rocher groups, the Late Ordovician to Early Silurian Matapédia Group, the Late Ordovician Honorat Group, the Cambrian Murphy Creek Formation, and the Precambrian to Cambrian Maquereau Group.
