Ontario Geological Survey Remapping the Perth Map Sheet

I was driving into Perth in August when I noticed an individual taking a sledge hammer to an outcrop of granite along Scotch Line (County Road 10) within the town limits of Perth.    My initial thought was that it must be a geologist taking a sample to age date the granite, so I stopped, introduced myself, and asked the individual if that was what he was doing.   I was glad that I’d stopped.   It was Dr.  Michael  Easton of the Ontario Geological Survey and he was collecting a sample in order to later determine its age.   I suspect that this was the first time he has been asked the question of whether he was collecting a sample in order to age date the rock.    (I often get asked in an accusing tone to explain what I’m doing when I just stop to look at an outcrop.)  

Dr. Easton  was good enough to tell me that he was working on the Perth map sheet and that his initial report had been published in the Summary of Field Work and Other Activities, 2015.   The following is a link to that report.

Easton, R. M.,  2015
Project Unit 15-014. Precambrian and Paleozoic Geology of the Perth Area, Grenville Province; in Summary of Field Work and Other Activities, 2015. Ontario Geological Survey, OFR 6313
at pages 18-1 to 18- 13
http://www.mndm.gov.on.ca/en/news/mines-and-minerals/summary-field-work-and-other-activities-2015   

Dr. Easton has recently sent to me electronic copies of two recently published  reports from this year’s field season that deal with rocks in the Perth area:
               
Easton, R.M.,  2016a.
Precambrian and Paleozoic geology of the Perth area, Grenville Province; in Summary of Field Work and Other Activities, 2016, Ontario Geological Survey, Open File Report 6323, p.17-1 to 17-13.

Easton, R.M.,  2016b.
Metasomatism, syenite magmatism and rare earth element and related metallic mineralization in Bancroft and Frontenac terranes: A preliminary deposit model; in Summary of Field Work and Other Activities, 2016, Ontario Geological Survey, Open File Report 6323, p.18-1 to 18-9.

Both reports can be downloaded from:
http://www.mndm.gov.on.ca/en/news/mines-and-minerals/summary-field-work-and-other-activities-2016
       
In his reports from 2015 and 2016a, Dr. Easton discusses A) the medium-pressure granulite- and upper amphibolite-facies rocks of the Frontenac terrane, B) the upper greenschist- to lower amphibolite-facies rocks of the Sharbot Lake domain, C) separated  by the Maberly shear zone, and includes maps showing the locations of the terranes and shear zone.   Easton 2015 discusses the Maberly Shear Zone and directs one to a “spectacular, 150 m long roadcut on the south side of Highway 7   (385925E, 4967751N) [which is] a microcosm of the Maberly shear zone, and consists of alternating panels, 10 to 15 m wide, of marble breccia interlayered with thin-layered, highly flattened, compositional silicate tectonites.”   For anyone that has not previously driven out to look at the shear zone, the outcrop is worth a look.  Below is a photograph of the outcrop.

The ruler in the photo is one meter long.

Easton (2015 and 2016a) divided the Frontenac terrane in the Perth map area into 3 subdomains, and reports on differences in the marbles present in the 3 subdomains of the Frontenac terrane.    His petrographic study of rocks in the Frontenac terrane suggests metamorphic pressures and temperatures higher than previously reported for the Perth Map sheet.  He found assemblages suggesting “pressures and temperatures greater than 8 kilobars and higher than 670◦C” and other assemblages “indicating metamorphic pressures as high as 11 to 14 kilobars and temperatures approaching 1000◦C.”    He notes that “a significant metamorphic pressure change occurs along a north-northeast-trending fault located southeast of Smiths Falls”, a “fault that trends north-northeast from Chaffey’s Lock to Portland to Glen Elm just south-southeast of Smiths Falls”, which he names the Chaffey’s Lock fault.  He puts the Perth map area in bathozone 6 of  Carmichael, noting that bathozone 4 conditions exist 20 km south of the Perth map area near Lyndhurst, adding that a "difference of 2 kilobars between the Perth and Lyndhurst areas would involve at least a vertical displacement of 7 km” across the fault but because the fault “places rocks of the Nepean Formation against rocks of the upper March and Oxford formations”  there was “no more than 100 m of post-Ordovician displacement across the fault.”

In his reports from 2015 and 2016, Dr. Easton also discusses the metallic mineral potential of the Perth map sheet, principally the potential for Kiruna-Type magnetite-apatite mineralization and the  rare earth potential of numerous mica-apatite deposits.   Dr. Easton mentions finding “a strontium equivalent of the mineral haunghoite (BaCe(CO3)2F). A strontium equivalent of haunghoite has not been previously identified, and this may represent a new mineral species.” 

He also discusses the industrial mineral potential (sandstone as potential source for silica; marble as a carbonate source; vermiculite), and includes analyses of sandstones and marbles.

While Dr. Easton’s reports concentrate on Precambrian rocks, he also mapped the Paleozoic rocks (the Cambrian  to Lower Ordovician Covey Hill and Nepean formations, the Lower Ordovician March and Oxford formations, and the Middle Ordovician Rockcliffe Formation). In his reports Dr. Easton mentions that he has found a number of  previously unknown exposures of Potsdam Group sandstone  and conglomerate (both Covey Hill and Nepean formations).   A previously unknown exposure of Potsdam group sandstone and conglomerate that he “identified on the north side of Highway 7 approximately 5 km west of Wemyss (385510E 4967646N)” is worth looking at.


The 2017 Annual meeting of the Geological Association of Canada/Mineralogical Association of Canada will be held in Kingston, Ontario from May 14-18, 2017 and  will coincide with the 175th anniversary of the founding of the Geological Survey of Canada by the legislature of the Province of Canada in 1842, in Kingston, Canada West.  As part of the conference Dr. Michael Easton of the Ontario Geological survey will be leading a one day field trip on May 14th  entitled New Insights into the Tectonic and Metamorphic Architecture of the Composite Arc Belt and the Frontenac-Adirondack Belt near Perth, Ontario, Grenville Orogen which highlights the results of his recent mapping, geochemistry, petrology and new geophysical data collected in the Perth area.   See:  http://www.kingstongacmac.ca/en/field-trips/


Christopher Brett
Perth, Ontario

Gypsum Pseudomorphs that formed in the Sabkha Environment of the Potsdam Group

“Sabkhas are supratidal, forming along arid coastlines and are characterized by evaporite-carbonate deposits with some siliciclastics” Wikipedia . 

In my  October 7,  2016 blog posting I mentioned that I had attended the official re-opening and rededication of the Metcalfe Geoheritage Park in Almonte, Lanark County.   While I was there and admiring structures preserved in Potsdam sandstone slabs that had been rescued during the enlargement of Highway 417 in Kanata, Dr. Donaldson suggested that I should look at other rescued slabs of sandstone that had been placed in the Last Duel Park in Perth, Ontario.  Below are three photographs of slabs that now reside in the Last Duel Park.

I believe the structures shown in the first two photographs  to be relic pseudomorphs of gypsum rosettes.  The third photo shows convolute, tightly folded sandstone beds, that were held together likely as the result of microbial binding.

My  October 31st  blog posting mentioned that I had attended the second day of the Niagara Peninsula Geological Society Field Trip to Eastern Ontario and visited the Potsdam sandstone quarry at Ellisville.  While there Paul Musiol of Kingston pointed out an interesting structure that he had found in the sandstone.  Below is a photograph of Paul’s find.

I told Paul that my best guess is that his structure is a  pseudomorph of gypsum or another evaporite mineral (barite).

The addendum to my blog posting from December 29, 2015 summarizes various reports on
on evaporites in Potsdam sandstone.    Recently, in his doctoral thesis, Dave Lowe described gypsum and evaporite pseudomorphs found in Potsdam sandstone:       

David G. Lowe, 2016   
Sedimentology, Stratigraphic Evolution and Provenance of the Cambrian – Lower Ordovician Potsdam Group in the Ottawa Embayment and Quebec Basin;
Doctoral Thesis, University of Ottawa,
http://www.ruor.uottawa.ca/handle/10393/35303

Dave has recognized six siliciclastic paleoenvironments in the Potsdam:  a) braided fluvial,  b) ephemeral fluvial, c) aeolian erg, d) coastal sabkha, e) tide-dominated marine and  f) open-coast tidal flat.   He discusses the coastal sabkha environment and the formation of gypsum pseudomorphs at pages 87-92 of his thesis.  His figure 3.8 at page 90 is worth a look, as it provides photographs of  evaporite minerals, pseudomorphs and textures in coastal sabkha strata. Figure 3.8A shows impressions of sparry, nodular radiating mineral aggregates in sandstone from Kanata, which Dave compared to evaporitic desert rose nodules.  He recognized possible swallowtail twin textures suggesting that the nodules were originally formed as gypsum.  His Figure 3.8B shows cubic impressions possibly of halite in sandstone.  His Figure 3.9 shows kinked and tightly-folded sandstone intraclasts in coastal sabkha strata.

Those with an interest in microbial binding in the sabkha environment might also want to read pages 201-203 of Dave’s thesis.

Christopher Brett
Perth
            

The Ellisville Potsdam Sandstone Quarry Revisited

A week ago Sunday I had the pleasure of attending the second day of the Niagara Peninsula Geological Society Field Trip to Eastern Ontario and revisiting the Potsdam sandstone quarry at Ellisville.
                       
On Saturday they had visited the Frontenac Lead Mine and the Canadian Wollastonite Quarry, and as I understand it  had an enjoyable time, despite the rain.

On Sunday we had great weather and I believe that everyone found something of interest.

Below are two specimens that were discovered when I was with the person who found the specimen.

Peter Lee found and collected the cylindrical structure shown in the following two photographs .

The first photo shows a top view while the second shows the top and a cross-section.   While the cylindrical structure was found in a loose slab, I believe that the top of the slab represents the true top as the slab was quite large.   The concentration of hematite at the edge of the cylindrical structure and the fact that the hematite staining shows that banding in the surrounding rock goes only so far into the structure, are both interesting features.   

Below is a photograph of a Climactichnites wilsoni trail that was collected by Paul Musiol of Kingston.

Paul spotted the specimen when I was standing next to him (and we were discussing whether a large slab displayed a Protichnites trackway).   I told Paul that it was Climactichnites and that finding a Climactichnites specimen in Eastern Ontario is important because it rarely occurs.  In Eastern Ontario only the Glen Quarry near Perth and a small quarry near Battersea have yielded specimens of Climactichnites.

The type locality for Climactichnites wilsoni is the Glen quarry, which is located a mile north of Perth, Ontario.   However, the only specimens collected from that (now abandoned and flooded) quarry were collected  from 1859 to 1882  by Dr. James Wilson  of Perth and by Mr. Richardson of  the Geological Survey of Canada.   Those specimens can be found in the collections of the Matheson House Museum in Perth, the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, the Redpath Museum in Montreal, the Geological Survey of Canada and the National Museum of Scotland.     Other specimens of Climactichnites  have been collected well over two decades ago from  a small (now abandoned and flooded) quarry near Battersea, Ontario and can be seen on display at the Miller Museum at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario.
              
The Climactichnites wilsoni trackway that Paul found is also important because most specimens of this trace fossil are quite a bit larger.   Getty and Hagadorn (2005) wrote a paper on Small Climactichnites Trackways and reported on small trackways 2 to 3 cm wide.  In a later paper Getty and Hagadorn (2009) reported on 304 Climactichnites wilsoni trackways, noting most trails are 2 to 18 cm wide with the smallest trail being 0.8 cm wide.  Paul’s specimen is among the smallest reported.

The Ellisville quarry displays at least three facies of the Potsdam Group.  The cylindrical structure was found in the Hannawa Falls Formation.  The specimen of Climactichnites wilsoni was found in the Nepean Member of the Keeseville Formation.

While I was on the field trip Ashley Pollock of the Niagara Peninsula Geological Society (“NPGS”) mentioned that they will likely repeat the field trip next year, but earlier than October.    Those wanting to attend should check the NPGS web site at www.ccfms.ca/clubs/NPGS/  And should consider joining the NPGS:   Family Membership is $20  while Individual Membership is $15.   The NPGS is an affiliated member of the Central Canadian Federation of Mineralogical Societies (“CCFMS”).   In the past NPGS field trips have been open to other clubs that are members of the CCFMS.

Christopher Brett
Perth, Ontario

References and Suggestions For Further Reading on Climactichnites

Yochelson, Ellis L., and Mikhail A. Fedonkin, 1993
Paleobiology of Climactichnites, an Enigmatic Late Cambrian Fossil. Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology, number 74, 74 pages, frontispiece, 58 figures.

Patrick Ryan Getty and James W. Hagadorn, 2005
Small Climactichnites Trackways: Their Abundance and Implications for Trackmaker Physiology, 2005 Salt Lake City Annual Meeting (October 16-19, 2005), Paper No. 219-16

Patrick Ryan Getty, James Whitey Hagadorn, 2008
Reinterpretation of Climactichnites Logan 1860 to Include Subsurface Burrows, and Erection of Musculopodus for Resting Traces of the Trailmaker, Journal of Paleontology, November 2008
82 (6), 1161-1172 ;      DOI: 10.1666/08-004.1

Patrick R. Getty and James W. Hagadorn, 2009
Palaeobiology of the Climactichnites Tracemaker,  Palaeontology, Vol. 52, Part 4, 2009, pp. 753–778

My Blog Postings from:
Thursday, 31 January 2013
On the trail of Climactichnites wilsoni - Part 1: Specimens Collected from a Quarry near Perth, Ontario

Monday, 11 February 2013
On the trail of Climactichnites wilsoni - Part 2: References to the Quarry Near Perth in the Scientific Literature, and the Geologic Mapping of Lot 6

Monday, 6 May 2013
On the trail of Climactichnites wilsoni - Part 3: A quarry about a mile from Perth as the town existed in 1859

Tuesday, 21 July 2015
Reports of the Trace Fossil Climactichnites found in Central Texas

Thursday, 16 July 2015
Burrows or Not Burrows - Part 2

The Metcalfe Geoheritage Park in Almonte, Lanark County; and Geoheritage Day 2016

This posting covers a few of the ways that our Geoheritage is promoted in Eastern Ontario.

The Metcalfe Geoheritage Park in Almonte, Lanark County

 

The Metcalfe Geoheritage Park in Almonte is Canada’s first municipal geoheritage park.   On September 24th I attended the official re-opening and rededication of the park, which in the past year has undergone a transformation, including the movement of the specimens,  the construction of a short walking trail, the building of concrete slabs on which to display the specimens, and the addition of signage.

The park displays over twenty large specimens of local rocks: sedimentary rocks of Ordovician age, as well as local igneous and metamorphic rocks of Precambrian age.   The following are photographs my two favourite specimens that are on display:

The first photograph shows desiccation cracks in sandstone, and provides evidence of microbial mats (otherwise such large shrinkage cracks would not be preserved in sandstone).   This specimen was discovered during the construction of the Almonte hydro electric generating station that is within a hundred meters of the park.   The second  shows stromatolites in local limestone.

In addition to the rocks on permanent display, the park incorporates space for two guest rocks.  Presently the two guest rocks on display are a specimen of Gowganada Conglomerate from the Elliot Lake Area and a specimen of Mica Schist.

Two brochures are available at the site: first, a coloured brochure with photographs and descriptions of all of the specimens; second, a black and white brochure with descriptions of the two guest rocks.   In the near future visitors will be able to use their mobile phones to digitally link each specimen with a website that will provide information on the specimen, as the Association of Professional Geologists Education Foundation is funding a project for a QR code system to link QR code signage for each specimen to web pages with content on each specimen.

The park is located in a beautiful setting beside the Mississippi River in Almonte within easy walking distance of a number of restaurants, and is worth a visit.   Ample parking and benches are provided.

Geoheritage Day - Sunday, October 16, 2016 - 10 am to 3 pm

Each year volunteers from the Department of Earth Sciences at Carleton University and the Ottawa-Gatineau Geoheritage Committee act as hosts at a number of sites throughout the National Capital Region (both in Ottawa, Ontario and in Quebec) where people can go to admire outcrops and learn about the geology of the site.  This year’s Geoheritage Day takes place on Sunday, October 16th.    These are the sites they are hosting this year:

    Champlain Bridge Stromatolites, Gatineau
    Champlain Lookout, Gatineau Park
    Hogs Back Park, Ottawa
    South March Highlands Hike, Kanata (Starts at 10 a.m.)
    Cardinal Creek Karst, Orleans
    Mer Bleue Bog, Orleans
    Pinhey Sand Dunes, Nepean
    The Haycock Iron Mine, Cantley, Quebec
    Carleton University Earth Sciences Sample Preparation Laboratory

Details and a map can be obtained at the following web page.

http://www.earthsci.carleton.ca/outreach/explore-geoheritage-day

Murphys Point Bike Loop: A Geological Interpretation,   by Bradley S. Wilson

My November 6, 2013 blog posting reviewed this brochure.   A pdf copy of the brochure can be downloaded from:

http://sgraycomm.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/murphys-point-bike-loop-aug5-13-final-download-small.pdf

Introduction to the Geodiversity of Perth: A Self-Guided Tour of Rocks on Display at the Crystal Palace, Tay Basin, Perth, Ontario, by Dr. J Allan Donaldson

This brochure can  be downloaded in pdf format from the Stephanie Gray’s web site at:

https://sgraycomm.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/perth-geohistory-booklet-sept20-small.pdf

Christopher Brett
Perth, Ontario

Suggested Readings

Anonymous
Ottawa Gatineau Geoheritage
www.ottawagatineaugeoheritage.ca/

Anonymous
The Almonte Geoheritage Project
https://luc-lafreniere-kec0.squarespace.com/s/Almonte-geoheritage-project.pdf

J. Allan Donaldson, 2009
Geoheritage 2. Examples of Geoeducation, Geoconservation and Geo-rescue Projects in Ontario
Geoscience Canada - Journal of The Geological Association of Canada, Volume 36, Number 3
https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/gc/article/view/12590/13466

J. Allan Donaldson, 2012
The Ottawa-Gatineau Geoheritage Committee Enters its Second Decade.  GAC-MAC Joint Annual Meeting, St. John’s 2012, Abstracts Volume 35, pages 35-36
www.mineralogicalassociation.ca/doc/StJohns2012_GAC-MAC_Abstracts.pdf

Eighty-one feet of Dark Grey Paleozoic Shale was Logged under the Potsdam by Bruce A. Liberty in Core from a Hole Drilled at Knowlton Lake, Ontario and reported in a Geological Survey of Canada Paper published in 1971

I expect that many  people reading the title of this posting, if they have a working knowledge of the sedimentary rocks of Eastern Ontario, will read the title at least twice, and will ask themselves the following three questions:

 - How can there be Paleozoic shale under the Potsdam given that the Potsdam Group is considered to be the oldest sedimentary series in Eastern Ontario? 
 - If Liberty reported shale under the Potsdam, why hasn’t anyone followed up on it?   
 - How does this shale formation tie in with Dalrymple, Narbonne and Smith’s  1985 paper  “Eolian action and the distribution of Cambrian shales in North America” (Geology, 13, 607–610)?

I have to admit that I can’t presently answer those questions and may not have an answer until 2018.   Below I’ve provided the source for the title, a summary of my investigations,  what I hope to find, and why it will take to 2018.

The title to this posting is derived from statements in  the following paper and in the legend to the following map.
   
Liberty, B. A, 1971.  Paleozoic geology of Wolfe Island, Bath, Sydenham and Gananoque map areas, Ontario.  Geological Survey of Canada  Paper 70-35, 1971, ; 12 pages (4 sheets), doi:10.4095/102360

Liberty, B. A, 1970 ,  Geology Sydenham Ontario, Map 17-1970,  Geological Survey of Canada , Preliminary Series, to accompany Paper 70-35. Geology by B. A. Liberty, 1961, 1964, 1966
       
Liberty devotes the first paragraph at page 2 of his paper to the Potsdam Formation, and concludes with the following three sentences:

“At least 70 feet of the formation occur in outcrop in the area and a boring at Knowlton Lake indicates a total thickness there of 149 feet. An additional 81 feet of dark grey Paleozoic shale was logged, by the writer, at the base of the formation in the first Dominion Observatory boring
at Knowlton Lake.  This unit is separated as a lower member at this one location only.”

I thought at first that Liberty’s  reference to “81 feet of dark grey Paleozoic shale” at the base of the Potsdam must have been a mistake, but on his accompanying  Map 17-1970 Liberty has the  legend:

“2  POTSDAM SANDSTONE: red, white, grey and yellow, evenly textured, fine-grained sandstone, and siltstone: in Knowlton Lake area this formation includes 81 feet of underlying dark grey shale as lower member (not included above).”   [my emphasis]

One of my initial thoughts was that someone else must have noted Liberty’s statements and commented on the underlying shale.   While I found that a number of authors reference Liberty’s paper,  I’ve been unable to find a reference to the shale.   For example, when Carson (1981a, 1981b) re-mapped this area for the Ontario Geological Survey he referenced Liberty’s earlier work, but doesn’t mention the shale.  Carson (1981a)  mentions that “Geological mapping of the Kingston area involved the reexamination of three map-areas previously mapped by B.A. Liberty for the Geological Survey of Canada (Liberty1971)” and that “Although no fossils have been recovered from the Potsdam formation, it is considered to be of Cambrian age (Liberty 1971)” , but doesn’t mention the shale.   Carson (1981b)  mentions that “Liberty (1971) estimated a total thickness in excess of 21 m” for the Potsdam Formation,  but doesn’t mention the shale.

Carson, D.M., 1981a: No. S13 Paleozoic Geology of the Kingston  Area, Southern Ontario; in  Ontario Geological Survey Miscellaneous Paper 100, Summary of Field Work, 1981, pages 134-136

Carson, D.M., 1981b: Paleozoic Geology of the Tichborne-Sydenham  Area, Southern Ontario; Ontario Geological Survey Preliminary Map P. 2413, Geological Series. Scale 1:50000. Geology 1980.

Sanford and Arnott (2010, GSC Bulletin 597, page 14)  mention that Liberty (1971) “established the presence of a large number of sandstone outliers, which were identified as a single unit, the Potsdam Formation” but again fail to mention Liberty’s description of the shale.

I knew from prior research that Liberty had been an authority on the Paleozoic rocks of Ontario.   (Liberty authored or co-authored over fifty  papers and maps for the Geological Survey of Canada on the Paleozoic sedimentary rocks of Ontario that were published over a period from about 1950 to 1973.)   As he had a wealth of knowledge on the Paleozoic rocks of Ontario,  I thought it unlikely that he could have mistaken, for example, Precambrian shale for Paleozoic shale.   I could have looked briefly at the core and assumed black shale to be Paleozoic,  but Liberty logged the core and made that decision.  Accordingly, why did he think the shale was Paleozoic in age?   The answer to that question has to be found in the core and in his notes from when he logged the core.

I expect everyone reading this posting is asking themselves the question  “Where would one look for the core from the Dominion Observatory boring at Knowlton Lake and for Liberty’s notes when he logged the core?”   I expect that there are many others like me who grew up in Ottawa knowing that the Dominion Observatory was on Carling Avenue in Ottawa, that geophysicists had been associated with the observatory, and that those geophyicists later worked for various sections of Energy Mines and Resources, now Natural Resources Canada, and worked with the geologists at the Geological Survey of Canada, also now Natural Resources Canada, and would check first with the Natural Resources Canada.   

As a first stab at finding the core I looked on GEOSCAN, Natural Resources Canada’s online database of Geological Survey of Canada publications.   I did locate  "A user's guide to core-storage facilities in Canada ', Geological Survey of Canada Paper 84-23, 1985  doi:10.4095/120217 " but it wasn't much help, other than for telling me that the Ontario Geological Survey had core from Eastern Ontario stored at Tweed.

I then sent an email to a contact at the Geological Survey of Canada/Natural Resources Canada  and was told that they didn’t have the core or Liberty’s notes. 

Next I sent an email to the District Geologist at the Ontario Geological Survey  in Tweed and was told they didn’t have the core.

Partly in desperation, I sent emails to two geologists (both retired, but still active) that I knew had worked for Energy Mines and Resources or the Geological Survey of Canada at the same time as Liberty.  The first, a geophysicist, replied that he had no idea where the core would be, that  after the  GSC,  Bruce Liberty was at Brock University and  Guelph,  that I might look there for his records, but that many records had been tossed out on various reorganizations.   The second, a geologist, also had no knowledge of the core, but noted “Instead of older Paleozoic, perhaps it is an unrecognized unit of post-Grenville Proterozoic strata, or maybe a thick patch of regolith developed on Grenville? I've seen shale-like regolith of unknown thickness below Potsdam SS elsewhere.”

I also sent an email to Mark Badham,  the curator of the Miller Museum at Queen's, asking if he had any knowledge of the core.  He assumed that I was talking about three drill holes drilled by the Dominion Observatory at the Holleford Crater and sent me the following  paper by Brian St. John. 

Brian E. St. John, 1968
Paleolacustrine arenites in the Holleford meteorite Crater, Ontario.   Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 5, 935-943   www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/e68-090
   
Mark also told me that Queen’s has  select pieces of the core from the three drill holes, mostly from  the sediment layers in the crater. 

I'd forgotten how close the Holleford crater was to Knowlton Lake, but suspect that Brian St. John's work does not explain Liberty finding shale below the Potsdam.  Brian St. John comments on three holes drilled  within the boundary of the crater.  None of these intersected Potsdam sandstone.  The drill hole I'm looking for  would be outside the crater, but only a half mile due south of Diamond Drill Hole 3 on Brian St. John's Figure 1, and on the southwest shore of Knowlton Lake. 

Brian St. John reported that the Holleford Crater is filled by sedimentary rocks which he divided into seven lithic units.  The top two units, his Units 6 and 7,  he correlated with the Rideau formation and the Pamela formation that outcrop in Eastern Ontario.   He  included a basal “explosion breccia” which he designated unit 1, overlain by unit 2, a thin breccia layer, both related to the meteor impact.   His units 3, 4 and 5 are:

Unit 3: calcareous shales and argillaceous limestones and sandstones, which contain a small quantity of carbonaceous matter, “which imparts a black colour to most of the unit”,
Unit 4: gray calcareous quartz arenite, and
Unit 5: white calcareous quartz arenite.   

It is only St. John’s unit 3 that sounds remotely like Liberty’s “ 81 feet of dark grey Paleozoic shale.”   While I suspect that St. John’s unit 3 is not Liberty’s shale, if Liberty’s shale is the same shale that St. John reported then it answers a question St. John posed in his paper as to  whether the crater is pre-Potsdam or post-Potsdam.
   
I was subsequently contacted by my source at the GSC/NRC.  She had done some more sleuthing and  told me that “The core might be stored at our Tunney’s Pasture collections facility but I’m afraid that the collections are closed for the next many months as we are moving out of the building.  If [another person at the GSC/NRC] is not able to help out with information, I’m afraid you will have to wait until the collection is reopened in 2018.  There is no one from collections who can look this up at this time.”   Accordingly, it appears that my search will be placed on hold until 2018.

In 2018 it will be interesting to see if the core stored at Tunney’s Pasture is the core from the three holes drilled within the Holleford Crater, or from the hole I’m looking for that was drilled at the edge of Knowlton Lake.  If the core can be located, is Liberty’s “dark grey Paleozoic shale” actually Paleozoic shale, or is it  Precambrian shale or  Precambrian regolith?  If it is shale, does it correlate with the shale within the Holleford Crater?  If it is a new formation that is older than the Potsdam what secrets will it yield? 

What is interesting about Liberty’s report from 1971 is how much has changed.   In 1971 when Liberty logged 81 feet of dark grey Paleozoic shale he did so before geologists recognized the  Ediacaran/Vendian period, before geologists were interested in Ediacaran/Vendian fossils, and  before geologists were interested in small shelly fossils.  What prompted Liberty  to identify the core as being Paleozoic shale?  Did he see find small shelled fossils?

The core in the possession of Queen’s, particularly the carbonaceous material, might also be worth a fresh look with modern techniques.   In 1968 when Brian St. John looked at the sedimentary rocks in the Holleford crater he did so before the Queen’s Geology Department had a scanning electron microscope.   I can remember using the electron microscope in the Geology Department at Queen’s.   I had to modify the software every time I went on the machine, and then had to take my results over to campus mainframe computer to get the results of my analysis.  Today when results are available instantaneously, it would be a shame not to re-analyze St. John’s core.

Christopher Brett
Perth, Ontario

Below is an extract from Liberty's map 17-1970.  On the map I’ve used red squares to show the locations of the three Dominion Observatory drill holes within the Holleford meteorite crater that were described by Brian St. John.  I’ve shown in acquamarine where Potsdam sandstone outcrops at the southwest corner of Knowlton Lake, and where I believe Dr. Bruce A. Liberty reported the Dominion Observatory drill hole where he logged “ 81 feet of dark grey Paleozoic shale” at the base of the Potsdam.  Liberty's Unit 1 is Precambrian; Unit 2, Potsdam Formation; Unit 3, Shadow Lake Formation; Unit 4, Gull River Formation, Member A; Unit 5, Gull River Formation, Member B.

Frothed Sandstone and Cylindrical Structures Found in Potsdam Sandstone

If you  love coffee and in the past decade have visited Perth, Ontario you have undoubtedly stopped at Coutts Coffee at Code’s Mill (corner of Herriott and Wilson Streets).  Coutts Coffee roasts their own coffee beans and consistently provides an excellent cup of coffee.   I’ve particularly liked going for coffee because two types of Potsdam sandstone were used in the construction of Code’s Mill, and in the construction of  Mr. Code’s house which is to be found directly across Herriott Street from Code’s Mill, and on my walk over I pass the Royal Bank building which is also made of Potsdam sandstone.   “Perth stone”, a distinctive purple-banded sandstone from the Hughes Quarry in Lanark County, was used as an accent stone in the construction of all three buildings.   (See my blog posting from Monday, December 17, 2012 for a description of the Hughes Quarry.)   There are also interesting structures in the March/Theresa flagstones used as the floor of the atrium at Code’s Mill.  It is worth the price of a cup of coffee just to admire the various stones.

This summer Coutts Coffee opened a new location on Gore Street East in Perth beside the Tay River.  It will be closing the outlet in Code’s Mill in December.   Code’s Mill incorporates five buildings built from 1842 and 1932, with the three-storey building facing onto Herriott Street having been built in 1903.   Interestingly, the new location is also in an historic building made of Potsdam sandstone.  It was constructed about 1845 for the then Sheriff of Bathurst District (the predecessor of Lanark County).

At the new location it is a stone that was used in the construction of an original fireplace that will be of most interest to geologists.  Below are two photos of that stone.

The photos show what I believe to be cross-sections of cylindrical structures and frothed sandstone (under the ruler).   I believe that the frothed sandstone was injected/frothed by water flowing through the sandstone.   The stone is clearer than the photos and is worth a look, as you sip your coffee.

An Occurrence 4.5 kilometers south of Elgin (2 miles north of Brier Hill)

In my blog posting from  August 27, 2015 I mentioned an occurrence 4.5 kilometers south of Elgin that shows numerous cylindrical structures and provided photographs of a number of small structures from that location.   Subsequently I determined that this location was first mentioned by Dr. Wynne-Edwards (1967, GSC Memoir 346, at page 120):

“Vertical cylindrical concretions resembling tree trunks, the best examples of which are exposed in a 30-foot cliff beside the road west of Lower Beverley Lake 2 miles north of Brier Hill, occur in the lower parts of the formation and cut across the bedding. Most of the concretions there taper out downward and are about a foot in diameter, but the mould of a much larger one was left in the cliff face as a cylindrical indentation more than 6 feet wide. Hawley and Hart (1934) attributed these concretions to the upward flow of water and the consequent development of tubular bodies of quicksand that disrupted the bedding in the as yet unconsolidated sand.”

This is the same occurrence that  I described, because 4.5 kilometers south of Elgin is  2 miles north of Brier Hill.

I revisited the occurrence last August with Dr. Donaldson and took the following pictures:

In the first photograph the angular holes that have weathered out of the sandstone could represent casts of gypsum.  The photo could also show multiple stages of dewatering, as the smaller cylinder cuts into the larger cylinder.  The last two photos are interesting because they show frothed sandstone and conglomerate around the edges of the cylinder.   The conglomerate is not present in the rock surrounding the cylinders and  must have been pushed up from below or pulled down from above  (there is a conglomerate a little higher in the stratigraphic column).

The Elgin/Brier Hill occurrence is worth a visit as there are over 200 small structures with a diameter 2 to 6 inches, a number a foot in diameter, plus a number as big or bigger than those at the Hughes quarry in Pittsburgh Township near Kingston Mills.   I have to admit that I have not yet seen the largest ones: Dr. Dave Forsyth was good enough to send me a photo of them. 

The number of cylindrical structures at the Elgin/Brier Hill occurrence rivals the number of cylindrical structures found at Victoria Island and described in the following paper: 
Mathieu, J., Turner, E.C., and Rainbird, R. H., 2013
Sedimentary architecture of a deeply karsted Precambrian-Cambrian unconformity, Victoria Island, Northwest Territories; Geological Survey of Canada, Current Research 2013-1, 15 p.
  

Cylindrical Structures and Sand Injectites

      
I’ve noted that cylindrical structures in Potsdam sandstone have features in common with sandstone injectites that  form by the flow of a mobilized sand slurry through fractures in
overlying rock.   Interestingly, most sedimentary injectite systems are explained by elevated pore fluid pressure combined with a catastrophic triggering mechanism, likely seismic shaking.  An article that I found helpful is:

Sherry, T. J., C. D. Rowe, J. D. Kirkpatrick, and E. E. Brodsky (2012), Emplacement and dewatering of the world’s largest exposed sand injectite complex, Geochemistry Geophysics  Geosystems, Volume 13, No. 1, 17 pages,  Q08008, doi:10.1029/2012GC004157.  

The article is worth reading because their figured laminae look like the bands that we in Eastern Ontario see in our cylindrical structures, and the authors provide a compelling explanation for the formation of the laminae.

Sherry, Rowe, Kirkpatrick, and  Brodsky  report that the injectite complex in California contains granular textures that record processes of sand slurry flow, multiple pore fluids, and dewatering after emplacement.    They suggest that compaction of the injectite deposit and pore fluid escape caused spaced compaction bands and dewatering pipes which created  laminae.   They describe alternating 6 mm thick laminae of iron oxide-cemented and uncemented sand and mention that the laminae are always locally parallel and consistent in thickness.    They suggest that during sand emplacement, the system must have transitioned from a flowing to geometrically locked grain geometry.  They suggest that iron oxide, precipitated from fresh pore water at a later stage, is preferentially concentrated in alternating laminae, that iron oxide cement occurs in the laminae with slightly higher apparent aspect ratio (consistent with stronger shape lineation). They suggest this reflects a difference in the permeability of the laminae, caused by and preserved from the initial orientation of the sand grains, that affected late stage groundwater flow.   

It would be an interesting exercise to look as closely at the orientation of the sand grains, and cement in Eastern Ontario’s cylindrical sandstone structures, as Sherry, Rowe, Kirkpatrick, and  Brodsky looked at the orientation of grains and cement in the sand injectite complex that they studied.


I’ve previously written about cylindrical structures and below  provide the dates and titles of my blog posts.

Christopher Brett
Perth, Ontario


January 29, 2014  - Cylindrical Structures in Potsdam Group Sandstone in Eastern Ontario
August 27, 2015 - Cylindrical Structures in Potsdam Group Sandstone in Eastern Ontario - Part 2
September 28,  2015 - A Map Showing the Location of Cylindrical and Conical Structures in Potsdam (Group) Sandstone of Ontario and New York
October 22, 2015  - Soft-Sediment Deformation (Seismites) in Nepean Sandstone Close to the Rideau Lake Fault - Cylindrical structures in Sandstone: A Type of Soft-Sediment Deformation Sometimes Linked to Seismic Activity
December 23,  2015 Dewatering Structures, Biofilm Structures, Glacial Striae and Chatter Marks in Potsdam Sandstone near Newboro, Eastern Ontario

Mark your calendars for a Guided Quarry Tour on September 10, 2016 - Second Notice

Below is an advertisement from the September 1st edition of the Perth Courier for the tour of OMYA’s Tatlock quarry on September 10th from 10 am to 2pm, rain or shine.  

As noted in my July 5th blog posting, the Tatlock quarry is located about 30 km north of Perth up Highway 511, turning right on McIlraith Road.  There is more than ample parking available in the fields opposite the quarry entrance.

Christopher Brett
Perth

What’s New in Potsdam Sandstone?

Actually, quite a lot.   For those with a keen interest in the Potsdam sandstone of Eastern Ontario, Quebec and Northern New York State, the following articles, abstracts and field trip guides are worth a look.  They are arranged from the most recent dating back to 2010.

The first article is instructive, as it explains how to recognize the differences between braided fluvial strata and ephemeral fluvial strata that are found in the Potsdam Group Sandstones, but you will want to read it numerous times.   (I did.)   Interestingly, the abstract for the first article mentions: “Two fluvial facies associations, braided and ephemeral fluvial, are recognized in strata of the Cambrian–Ordovician Potsdam Group in the Ottawa Embayment and Quebec Basin in northeastern North America.   ... [I]n the upper part of the Potsdam two regional ephemeral fluvial units are interstratified with two braided fluvial units, providing evidence for shifts in regional climate. ... These changes are correlated with documented Late Cambrian to Earliest Ordovician global climate fluctuations, with semiarid conditions and related ephemeral fluvial systems corresponding to global cooling events at ca. 491 and 487 Ma.”   

What I found most useful in Lowe and Arnott’s (2016a) article are the figures and the summary of the Potsdam Group which “is now recognized as a group comprising three formations that range in age from uppermost Lower Cambrian to Lower Ordovician. The oldest is the Altona Formation, which consists of arkose, siltstone, mudstone, and dolostone and records a marine transgression during the Early to Middle Cambrian in the Quebec Basin . The marine Altona Formation is overlain by the Middle Cambrian Ausable Formation, made up of braided fluvial arkose and conglomerate that are thickest in the eastern Ottawa Embayment and Quebec Basin, and overlain by redbed eolian quartz arenites present mainly in the southwestern part of the Ottawa Embayment.  An unconformity, in places angular, separates the Ausable Formation from the overlying Upper Cambrian–Lower Ordovician Keeseville Formation   The Keeseville Formation consists of quartz arenites and minor conglomerate of fluvial, eolian, marginal marine, and shallow marine origin. The contact between the Potsdam Group and overlying Theresa Formation is defined by a change from marine siliciclastic to mixed siliciclastic–carbonate strata associated with the epeiric Sauk transgression.  Age and contact relationships indicate that this contact is locally an erosional discontinuity but elsewhere conformable, ” [citations omitted].    That summary should be compared with their Figure 3, a regional correlation of cross-sections from three locations showing interstratified ephemeral units, braided fluvial units and the marginal to fully marine units, and with the cross-sections in Lowe,  Arnott, and Sanford (2013) and in Lowe (2014). 

Lowe (2014) reports that “new biostratigraphic analyses from this study (Nowlan, 2013) indicate that an interval stratigraphically below the uppermost Potsdam Group (the Riviere Aux Outardes Mb of the Covey Hill Fm) is Lowermost Ordovician (Early Tremadocian) (Figure 3). We therefore consider the uppermost Potsdam in the western Ottawa Embayment to be of Lower Ordovician age”.  Lowe (2014) also notes that “Existing and new ages of the basal Theresa Formation indicate that the switch from pure siliciclastic (Potsdam) to mixed siliciclastic-carbonate (Theresa) was diachronous, younging from the southwest to the northeast”.

In Ontario, from about 1982, we had been dividing the Potsdam Group into (a) a lower Covey Hill formation (feldspathic sandstone and conglomerate);  and  (b) an upper Nepean Formation (fluvial gravels and sandstone; eolian sandstone; and shallow marine facies sandstone).    Sanford and Arnott (2010) added numerous refinements, including noting the presence of a regional uncomformity within the Potsdam Group separating the underlying Covey Hill (Ontario and Quebec)/Ausable (New York) from the overlying Nepean (Ontario)/Keeseville (New York)/Cairnside (Quebec), and  subdividing the Covey Hill into four units – the Jericho/Altona, overlain by the Hannawa Falls, Chippewa Bay and Edwardsville members.

David Lowe (2014)  uses allostratigraphy (correlation of unconformity-bound units) to subdivide and correlate the  Potsdam Group and has proposed lithostratigraphic revisions.  He proposes (starting at the oldest, and using mostly his words):

Allomember 1: Altona Formation: uppermost Early Cambrian to Middle Cambrian: only recognized in  the Quebec basin... It consists of wave/stormdominated marine shoreface/shelf deposits.

Allomember 2:  Ausable Formation (proposed revision): Middle to lower Upper Cambrian:
consists of fluvial arkose that reach a thickness of ~600 m along the axis of the Oka-Beauharnois Arch and is exposed as outliers elsewhere (the Covey Hill Member, proposed) and of red bed aeolian quartz arenites (Hannawa Falls Member, proposed),   

Allomember 3: Chippewa Bay and Riviere Aux Outardes Members of the Keeseville Formation
(proposed revision): Upper Cambrian to Lowermost Ordovician: consists of widespread but thin quartz arenites and quartz cobble-boulder conglomerates of fluvial origin (Chippewa Bay Member, proposed) overlain in the northern Ottawa Embayment by marine sandstones with local mudstone and carbonate interbeds (Riviere Aux Outardes Member, proposed). The fluvial Chippewa Bay member of allomember 3 makes up the thickest part of the Potsdam [in upper NY State], and consists of braided perennial   and ephemeral   depositional facies associations.

Allomember 4:  Nepean Member of Keeseville Formation (proposed): Lower Ordovician: consists of basal  terrestrial and overlying marginal marine and tide-dominated shallow marine quartz arenite that forms the uppermost Potsdam. Allomember 4 is locally conformably but abruptly overlain   or unconformably overlain  by the mixed carbonate and siliciclastic Theresa Formation.  [T]he switch from pure siliciclastic (Potsdam) to mixed siliciclastic-carbonate (Theresa) was diachronous,  younging from the southwest to the northeast.

Jaret (2015) reports on U-Pb ages of zircons from the Potsdam at Alexandria Bay, NY, which yielded concordant ages of two populations: 1100 Ma and 2500 Ma.  Only the first can be Grenville sourced.   Allaz, Selleck, Williams and Jercinovic (2013) dated monazite from the Potsdam Formation, New York and reported that “Monazite core ages yield Proterozoic ages between 1.17 and 0.90 Ga (Shawinigan and Ottawan orogeny). Monazite overgrowth and xenotime ages indicate four to five major overgrowth events between ca. 500 Ma (shortly after the time of deposition) and ca. 200 Ma.”

Christopher Brett
Perth, Ontario

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David G. Lowe, R.W.C. Arnott, 2016a
 Composition and Architecture of Braided and Sheetflood-Dominated Ephemeral Fluvial Strata In the Cambrian–Ordovician Potsdam Group: A Case Example of the Morphodynamics of Early Phanerozoic Fluvial Systems and Climate Change
Journal of Sedimentary Research, v. 86, i. 6, p. 587-612, Published in June 2016, doi:10.2110/jsr.2016.39  

David G. Lowe and Bill Arnott, 2016b
Paleotopographic Controls on Fluvial Architecture of Pre-Vegetated Braided Fluvial Strata in a Basal Cambrian-Ordovician Sandstone: Potsdam Group of the Ottawa Embayment and Quebec Basin; Abstract with program, Article #90259, AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, June 22, 2016 
www.searchanddiscovery.com/abstracts/html/2016/90259ace/abstracts/2382851.html

Tadeusz Bartek Splawinski,  J Patterson,  M Kwiatkowski, 2016
The late Cambrian interface of sea and land: paleoecology and paleoenvironment of the Upper Cairnside Formation, Potsdam Group, near Beauharnois, Quebec, Canada. Northeastern Geoscience, Volume 34,  pages 13 – 22 
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304952493_

David G. Lowe and Bill Arnott,  2015a
Supercritical strata in Lower Paleozoic fluvial rocks: a super critical link to upper flow regime processes and preservation in nature.   EGU General Assembly 2015, held 12-17 April, 2015 in Vienna, Austria. id.7279
meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU2015/EGU2015-7279.pdf

David G. Lowe and Bill Arnott,  2015b
Supercritical strata in Lower Paleozoic fluvial rocks: a super critical link to upper flow regime processes and preservation in nature.   Dirt Talk, Department of Earth Sciences, Dalhousie University, April 10, 2015
http://www.dal.ca/faculty/science/earth-sciences/news-events/events/2015/04/10/dirt_talk___david_lowe.html

David Lowe, Charlotte Mehrtens  and Ryan Brink, 2015
Sedimentology and Stratigraphy of the Cambrian Potsdam Group (Altona, Ausable and. Keeseville Formations), Northeastern New York. Field Trip, New York State Geological Association, 87th Annual Meeting, State University of New York at Plattsburgh, Plattsburgh, NY, 12–13 September 2015

Ryan A Brink,  2015
Sedimentologic Comparison Of The Late/lower Early Middle Cambrian Altona Formation And The Lower Cambrian Monkton Formation; M.Sc. Thesis, University of Vermont, 134 p.
http://scholarworks.uvm.edu/graddis/370
http://scholarworks.uvm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1369&context=graddis

Mángano, M.G. and Buatois, L.A., 2015,
The trace-fossil record of tidal flats through the Phanerozoic:  Evolutionary innovations and faunal turnover, in McIlroy, D., ed., ICHNOLOGY: Papers from ICHNIA III: Geological Association of Canada, Miscellaneous Publication 9, p. 157-177 at 159-161, Figure 7 and 171.

Steven Jaret, 2015
Provenance of the Potsdam Sandstone from laser ablation U-Pb ages of detrital Zircons. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 47, No. 3, p.80    
https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2015NE/webprogram/Paper252725.html

MacNaughton, R.B., Hagadorn, J.W., Lacelle, M., and Groulx, P., 2014
The perils of Protichnites: The checkered history of an iconic ichnotaxon.
Alberta Palæontological Society, Paleo 2014, Annual  Symposium,  Abstracts  and  Short   Papers, Mount  Royal University, Calgary,  Alberta,   p.  34.  http://www.academia.edu/8412586/The_perils_of_Protichnites_the_checkered_history_of_an_iconic_ichnogenus_ABSTRACT_  

MacNaughton,  R.B.,  and  Hagadorn,  J.W., 2014
The perils of Protichnites:  Revisiting the earliest-named arthropod trackways.
GAC-MAC Joint Annual Meeting, Fredericton, 2014, Abstracts, Volume 37, page 170
http://www.mineralogicalassociation.ca/doc/AbstractVolume2014Final.pdf

David G. Lowe and Bill Arnott, 2014a
Variations in Braided Fluvial Styles Related to Topography and Climate in the Cambrian-Ordovician Potsdam Group, Ottawa Embayment and Quebec Basin
AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition, Houston, TX, April 8, 2014
http://www.searchanddiscovery.com/pdfz/documents/2014/51004lowe/ndx_lowe.pdf.html
http://www.searchanddiscovery.com/abstracts/html/2014/90189ace/abstracts/1840976.html

David G. Lowe and Bill Arnott, 2014b
Coeval Tectonism and Epeiric Transgression on the Early Paleozoic Laurentian Platform Recorded by Strata of the Potsdam Group in the Northwestern Ottawa Embayment
 AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition, Houston, TX, April 7, 2014
http://www.searchanddiscovery.com/abstracts/html/2014/90189ace/abstracts/1840946.html

David G. Lowe, 2014
Stratigraphy and Terrestrial to Shallow Marine Environments the Potsdam Group in the Southwestern Ottawa Embayment ; New York State Geological Association 86th Annual Meeting,  Field Trip B-4,  183
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/280924108_

Sören Jensen,  Luis A. Buatois  and M. Gabriela Mángano , 2013,
Testing for palaeogeographical patterns in the distribution of Cambrian trace fossils, Chapter 5 in  Early Palaeozoic Biogeography and Palaeogeography, Geological Society, London, Memoirs 2013, volume 38, p. 45-58
doi: 10.1144/M38.5

Seamus Magnus, Dave Lowe, Jamie Cutts, and Travis McCarron, 2013,
OCGC Field Trip – September 27th to 29th 2013
earthsci.carleton.ca/sites/default/files/Field%20Guide%202013.pdf

Julien Allaz, Bruce Selleck, Michael L. Williams, Michael J. Jercinovic 2013
Microprobe analysis and dating of monazite from the Potsdam Formation, New York: A progressive record of chemical reaction and fluid interaction.  American Mineralogist, 98 (7) 1106-1119     http://dx.doi.org/10.2138/am.2013.4304

Lowe, David G., Arnott, R.W.C., Chiarenzelli, Jeffrey R.,  and Sanford, B.V., 2013
Cratonic arch activity and basin dissection in early Paleozoic southeast Laurentia recorded by pre- and syn-transgressive strata of the Potsdam Group.  The Geological Society of America, 125th Annual Meeting,  Abstracts with Programs, Vol. 45, No. 7, p. 475, Paper 195-1
https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2013AM/webprogram/Paper232272.html

David G. Lowe,  Robert W. C. Arnott, and Bruce V. Sanford, 2013,
Before the Great North American Carbonate Bank: A Complex Cambrian-Lower Ordovician Transgressive History Recorded in Siliciclastic Strata of the Potsdam Group, Southeast Laurentia
 Adapted from extended abstract prepared in conjunction with oral presentation at AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, May 19 -22, 2013
http://www.searchanddiscovery.com/pdfz/documents/2013/50859lowe/ndx_lowe.pdf.html

Mario Lacelle, James W. Hagadorn and Pierre Groulx, 2012
Prolific Potsdam Protichnites: Giant euhycarcinoid trackways from Beauharnois, Québec
Canadian Paleontology Conference, University of Toronto 2012,  Proceedings No. 10: 43.
www.mpe-fossiles.org/resources/Lacelle_etal_2012.pdf

James W. Hagadorn, Mario Lacelle, and Pierre Groulx, 2012
Mirabel's ancient surfers: Insights from Cambrian trace fossils and sedimentology of the Potsdam Group, Québec;  Canadian Paleontology Conference, University of Toronto 2012, Abstract Volume, page 37
http://www.mpe-fossiles.org/resources/Hagadorn_etal_2012.pdf

D.  Lowe and R.W.C. Arnott, 2012
The Potsdam Group in New York State, Ontario and Quebec: stratigraphic relationships and character of continental and shallow marine sedimentation in a tectonically active continental basin.  GAC-MAC Joint Annual Meeting, Volume 35, pages 80-81

James W. Hagadorn, Joseph H. Collette,  and Edward S. Belt, 2011
Eolian-aquatic deposits and faunas of the Middle Cambrian Potsdam Group
Palaios 26(5):314-334  May 2011
DOI: 10.2307/25835633

Anonymous, 2010
[Attributed to Selleck, B., Arnott,  R.W.C. and Sanford, B. V.]   Potsdam Formation Field Excursion, July 22-25, 2010, Thousand Island Region and St. Lawrence Lowlands.  Colgate University.
www.colgate.edu/.../Field%20trip%20Information%20July%2022%202010.pdf

Bruce V. Sanford and Robert W.C. Arnott, 2010
Stratigraphic and structural framework of the Potsdam Group in eastern Ontario, western Quebec, and northern New York State.  Geological Survey of Canada, Bulletin 597, 85 pages
publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2010 /nrcan/M42-597

Mark your calendars for a Guided Quarry Tour on September 10, 2016

One of Lanark County’s claims to fame is the high quality maple syrup that is produced at the maple sugar bushes that are located throughout Lanark County.  Each year Perth celebrates with a Festival of the Maples held the last Saturday in April.   (This year was the 40th annual Festival of the Maples.)   I’d swear that half the county attends.  At this year’s Maple Fest I noted that one of the booths selling maple syrup was operated by Tom Lalonde & Family Farm  and manned by Tom  and his wife.   Those with an interest in geology in Lanark County will know that Tom is a geologist who is the Quarry Manager at OMYA’s Tatlock marble quarry.   My wife and I stopped to buy some maple syrup and maple butter and while there I told Tom that both my wife and I had really enjoyed the tour of OMYA’s marble quarry last fall. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that OMYA will be hosting another tour this year on Saturday, September 10th.   Mark your calendars for an enjoyable tour.
                           
Last year OMYA provided buses (thankfully, not school buses) to transport visitors around and down into the quarry.  In addition it provided a refreshment tent with cold drinks, burgers and hotdogs available.   The refreshment tent also served to provide a history of the quarry told through posters mounted on the inside walls of the tent.

OMYA is a world leader in the production of calcium carbonate which it mines from quarries located throughout the world.   In Lanark County it operates a quarry at Tatlock which is said to be the largest calcium carbonate mine in Canada and to produce the purest calcium carbonate in the world.  OMYA mines and crushes the calcium carbonate at the Tatlock quarry and processes the product at its plant west of Perth along Highway 7.   OMYA’s calcium carbonate products have many applications including being used in paints, plastics, construction materials,  paper and packaging materials.

The Tatlock quarry is about 900 meters long, 400 meters wide and 110 meters deep.  It is located about 30 km north of Perth up Highway 511, turning right on McIlraith Road.  There is more than ample parking available in the fields opposite the quarry entrance.  A Google satellite view of the quarry can be obtained  by typing   45.145370, -76.497971 into the Google search engine and searching under MAPS, and switching to SatelliteView, or by going to:

  http://wikimapia.org/95877/Tatlock-Quarry-OMYA

Last year the guided bus tour of the Tatlock quarry was advertised for Saturday September 12th, 2015 from 10am til 2pm,  rain or shine.   I expect the tour will operate over similar hours this year.   Below are two photographs that I took last year while on the tour.  In the first photo, at the bottom of the quarry, is a bus for scale.

Christopher Brett
Perth, Ontario

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Update:   On August 22, 2016 I phoned OMYA in Perth and confirmed that the quarry tour is still scheduled for September 10th.  I was told that advertisements for the tour will appear in the local papers over the next two weeks.

Perthite from Near Perth, Ontario; Part 3

I’ve previously written about Perthite from Perth, Ontario.   In my posting from Monday, January 14,  2013 I mention two outcrops south of Perth  where it is believed that  Dr. James Wilson found the original specimens, that  Dr. Thomas Thomson at the University of  Glasgow performed the initial chemical analysis and named Perthite, that  T. Sterry Hunt of the Geological Survey of Canada subsequently published a better description of the Perthite and better chemical analysis to correct Dr. Thomson’s "unfortunate want of precision in his mineralogical description" and problems with Dr. Thomson’s reported chemical composition. 

I also provided a link to The Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, University of Glasgow, which has a photograph on its web site of what is likely  the original specimen of Perthite sent by Dr. Wilson to Dr. Thomson (Hunterian catalogue number  M2361  ).   See:

http://www.huntsearch.gla.ac.uk/cgi-bin/foxweb/huntsearch/LargeImage.fwx?collection=all&catno=M2361&mdaCode=GLAHM&filename=M2361a.jpg#caption
       
In my posting from Wednesday, June 12, 2013 I mentioned a visit by Luis Sánchez-Muñoz and Professor Martin to Perth, discussed  Sánchez-Muñoz’s 2012 paper entitled The Evolution of Twin Patterns in Perthitic K-Feldspar from Granitic Pegmatites, and  referred to an article by Charles H Warren entitled A Quantitative Study of Certain Perthitic Feldspars, that was published in 1915, which provided a description and analysis of Perthite from the type locality near Perth which Warren estimated contained 51.9% Microcline by weight and 47.3% Albite by weight.
   
There has been a recent article published on Perthite from the type locality near Perth, Ontario by two Scottish professors:  Martin R. Lee of the School of Geographical and Earth Sciences, University of Glasgow, and Ian Parsons of the Grant Institute of Earth Science, University of Edinburgh.  The citation for the article follows:

Martin R. Lee, Ian Parsons (2015) 
Diffusion-controlled and replacement microtextures in alkali feldspars from two pegmatites: Perth, Ontario and Keystone, South Dakota, 
Mineralogical Magazine, December 2015, 79 (7) 1711-1735
DOI: 10.1180/minmag.2015.079.7.21,
http://minmag.geoscienceworld.org/content/79/7/1711
Published online on February 09, 2016   

Lee and Parsons compared perthitic microcline from Perth, Ontario (Wards catalogue 46 E 0510) and perthitic microcline from  Keystone, South Dakota (Wards 46 E 5125) with  the sample of the type perthite from Perth, Ontario (Hunterian Museum, Glasgow, M2361).   The two Wards samples were studied using light and electron microscopy while the  type perthite from the Hunterian Museum was compared using light microscopy. 

Lee and Parsons report that the type specimen differs in bulk composition and microtexture from the Wards sample from Perth  (and from  the Keystone sample) and conclude that although the Wards sample from Perth and type specimen likely come from the same general locality, the Wards sample described in their paper is not the type material.  

Interestingly, they did not analyze the bulk composition of the type specimen or the Wards sample from Perth.  They noted that  Hunt's two analyses (1851) correspond with a bulk composition of Or41.2Ab55.5An3.4, which they use for the composition of the type specimen  M2361.   For the bulk composition of the Wards sample from Perth they rely on an analysis conducted by Holdren and Speyer, 1987 which yielded a bulk composition of Or57.4Ab42.0An0.6.  They note that the type is  more albitic than the Wards’ sample.    They don’t mention Warren’s 1915 analysis of Perthite from the type locality (mentioned above), which appears to be in the middle of their two bulk compositions.

Lee and Parsons make some interesting observations on the type specimen:  “In thin section ...  M2361 is a vein perthite with albite forming periodically distributed lenticular sheets, overall parallel to b , but locally slightly oblique. At low power, lamellae appear relatively smooth-sided, although in detail the interfaces are serrated. ...  The average periodicity of the lenses is ~0.5 mm. The albite has a pronounced {110} cleavage , and in places a second feldspar, presumably microcline, forms thin{110} plates partially outlining albite subgrains . In some regions the lenses adopt a more nearly equidimensional, globular shape, and there are also regions in which thick albite lamellae are missing. Fine-scale, film microperthite occurs in these regions. Most of the microcline has very regular, straight-sided tartan twinning, with occasional regions of coarser twinning. It forms a matrix to the albite films, and is crowded with tiny euhedral plates of orange-brown biotite, most abundant in the central parts of the microcline lamellae. This suggests that the formation of biotite was related to the replacement process that produced the macroperthite. The plates of biotite have no visible effect, at the LM scale, on the tartan twinning. The biotite presumably accounts for the dark brown colour of the microcline in this sample and also the golden schiller noted by Hunt and visible in our fragment. The albite has fine-scale Albite twinning, varying in thickness, and sometimes showing lateral off-sets suggesting deformation or the presence of subgrains.”
[References to their figures omitted]   

I find it interesting that the golden schiller noted by Hunt (1851) was noted by Lee and Parsons in the thin section of the type specimen  M2361 in the Hunterian Museum, Glasgow and attributed to plates of biotite. Charles Warren (1915) for perthite from the type locality near Perth, attributed the red color of the dark reddish-brown microcline “to the presence of exceedingly minute crystal scales of hematite which are chiefly contained to the microcline. They are usually arranged along definite crystallographic directions.”

I’ve collected a number of specimens of Perthite from the outcrop on the west side of Elm Grove Road looking for – but not finding – a golden schiller in any specimens.   While it is possible that the Wards specimens of Perthite from Perth also come from this outcrop  (I’ve been told by a friend who was born and raised in Lanark County not far from the outcrop that a tremendous volume of Perthite was collected from the outcrop on Elm Grove Road when the road was widened), Lee and Parsons' comment on the Wards specimen that it is "less obviously perthitic" than the type specimen does not accord with the outcrop. 

The outcrop on Elm Grove Road is one of the two outcrops of pegmatite containing perthite  that are found approximately 8.5 kilometers (five miles) south of the Town of Perth, in the third lot of Concession VI, North Burgess Township, Lanark County.   The second outcrop is about 200 metres to the north of the outcrop on Elm Grove Road, on the northeast side of Glenn Drive.  I do have one specimen from that location.   In my specimen of perthite from the Glenn Drive outcrop the microcline does have a dark brown colour, darker than the microcline from Elm Grove Road, but I attributed it to the fact that the specimen is more weathered and not as fresh as the samples from Elm Grove Road.   It would be interesting to have my specimen of Perthite from Glenn Drive  analyzed to see if it matches Hunt’s composition.  Perhaps Glenn Drive is the type location rather than off Elm Grove Road?
   
Christopher Brett
Perth, Ontario

A specimen of Eozoon Canadense at the Matheson House Museum in Perth, Ontario

             Eozoön (ē-o-zō’on) a supposed gigantic fossil foraminifer found in marble of the Laurentian
             rocks of Canada , whence the name Eozoön Canadense; so called from the Greek ēōs,
            dawn, and  zōon, an animal, as being the oldest life traceable in the past history of
             the globe. Now generally regarded of mineral origin (Charles Morris, 1917)

Below is a photograph of a slabbed and polished specimen of Eozoon Canadense that is in a display cabinet on the third floor of the Matheson House Museum in Perth, Ontario.  The specimen is said to be from North Burgess Township, Lanark County, Ontario.  The specimen is about 7 inches (17 cm) wide.    Eozoon Canadense,  shown in the middle to upper half of the specimen, consists of the thin 1 mm thick alternating bands of green serpentine (with grains of spinel) and bands of grey dolomite.

The banding appears as raised ridges on one weathered edge of the specimen that is in the display cabinet.   I suspect that most people, if they stumbled across a rock containing Eozoon would identify it as marble containing green serpentine, and might collect it for a rock garden. 
   
What most who look at the specimen will not realize is that this rock has quite the history, and the one page commentary at the museum that describes the specimen and briefly sets out the controversy surrounding  whether Eozoon is of organic origin or is inorganic and results from metamorphism,  does not and cannot convey the magnitude of the controversy that surrounds Eozoon Canadense.   Hundreds of scholarly articles in scientific journals (most published in the period from 1863 to 1899), numerous letters to the editor and four  books have been devoted to Eozoon.   It is hard to believe the controversy that Eozoon caused.   Not just the leading geologists, paleontologists and mineralogists were involved.  Leading biologists from England and Germany entered the fray.  Besides the obstinance of the opposing parties, and their distinct lack of tact when attacking and dissecting opposing views and when questioning the qualifications of those asserting opposite views,  there are various reasons for the controversy.   The most important factor that led to the controversy is that Eozoon is found in Precambrian rocks that before the finding of Eozoon had been considered azoic – devoid of life. 

A further factor that fueled the controversy is that Eozoon is found only in crystalline limestone showing varying degrees of metamorphism.  Did metamorphism create the structure or modify an existing structure?

In addition  there are five main types of Eozoon Canadense (all from the Precambrian rocks of the Grenville province of the Canadian Shield):

- the Burgess type, alternating bands of dark green serpentine with grains of spinel and thinner bands of grey dolomite,  from North Burgess, south of Perth, Ontario
- the Calumet type, alternating bands of a light grey clinopyroxene and bands of calcite,  from Grand Calumet along the Ottawa River
- the Côte St. Pierre type, alternating layers of white calcite and light green serpentine, from near Grenville, Quebec
- the Tudor type, parallel crescentic bands of calcite, from Tudor township in Hastings County, Ontario about 45 miles inland from the shore of Lake Ontario, in comparatively unaltered crystalline limestone
- the Huntingdon type, quartz bands alternating with bands of tremolite and calcite, from the Henderson Talc mine a few miles southeast of Madoc, in Huntingdon Township, Hastings County, Ontario   

Further, not everyone that commented believed that the Tudor type and the Huntingdon type should even be classified as Eozoon.   In addition, not everyone looked at all of the five main types of specimens, and few of the commentators looks at the specimens in the field.  Most relied on thin sections and hand specimens provided by others.

The story started innocently enough.    A few years before 1858 Dr. James Wilson, a physician and amateur geologist in Perth collected specimens from North Burgess township (just south of Perth)  that he sent to his friend William E. Logan, Provincial Geologist for the Geological Survey of Canada.    In 1858 somewhat similar banded specimens were collected by John McMullen of the Geological Survey from the Grand Calumet, an island along the Ottawa River, upstream from Ottawa.  Logan thought the specimens strongly resembled fossils  and displayed them at scientific meetings in the USA in 1859 and in England in 1862 as evidence of organic structures in Precambrian rocks, but met with little acceptance.

Logan (1863) in the Geology of Canada  speculated that the Grand Calumet specimens “present parallel or apparently concentric layers, resembling the Stomatopora rugosa”, a common fossil,  recognized the similar appearance  between  the specimens from North Burgess and Grand Calumet, and the differences in mineral composition between the specimens, and commented that “If both are to be regarded as the results of unaided mineral arrangements, it would seem strange that identical forms should be derived from such different compositions.”  Below is the drawing of the “Supposed fossil from the Laurentian limestone, Grand Calumet” that appeared in Logan’s (1863) the Geology of Canada:

Below is a drawing of a specimen of Eozoon collected by Dr. Wilson of Perth, that appeared in Dawson’s 1875 book  Life’s Dawn on Earth: Being the History of the Oldest Known Fossil Remains, And Their Relations to Geological Time and to the Development of the Animal Kingdom.

In 1863 members of the Geological Survey of Canada found further specimens of Eozoon at Grenville, Quebec and nearby at Côte St. Pierre.  Logan tried to get Elkanah Billings involved, but he declined, and the microscopic slides of the specimens were passed to J. William Dawson at McGill to study.    Dawson arrived at the conclusion that they were “of animal nature”, a foraminifer  which he named Eozoon Canadense, the dawn animal of Canada.   Dawson and Logan enlisted the aid of Professor William Carpenter, an English naturalist and expert on marine zoology, notably in the lower organisms–foraminifera and crinoids.   Carpenter agreed with Logan and Dawson.    In 1865 each of Logan, Dawson and Carpenter, with a contribution from Sterry Hunt, published papers in the Journal of the Geological Society of London stating that Eozoon Canadense were giant fossil foraminifer.

The controversy started when William King and Thomas Rowney,  mineralogy and chemistry professors at Queen’s College, Galway, Ireland, published on June 10, 1865 a letter to the editor of the London Reader, a weekly journal, asserting that Eozoon was “nothing more than the effect of  crystallization and segregation.”  Carpenter responded in the next issue of the London Reader questioning the qualifications and competence of both King and Rowney.   King responded by letter published in the London Reader with a personal attack on Carpenter.   So began a series of letters to the editor and articles in scientific journals by Logan, Dawson and Carpenter on one side and King and Rowney (and numerous others) on the other, each side attacking and dissecting opposing views (and the qualifications of those asserting opposite views). 

In 1866 King and Rowney published an article in the Journal of the Geological Society of London setting out their investigations and  why they believed Eozoon was of mineralogical origin. 

In 1867 both Logan and Dawson reported on new specimens of Eozoon from (a) Tudor township in Hastings County, Ontario, that had been found in fairly unaltered crystalline limestone without serpentine, and (b) from southeast of Madoc.    I suspect that Logan and Dawson expected that these new specimens would answer King and Rowney’s objections, but they merely added fuel to an acrimonious debate.

Notable articles opposing an organic origin were written by H. J. Carter, a marine zoologist, Otto Hahn and Karl Möbius, two German zoologists, and J. W. Gregory, a geologist with the British museum.   Logan and Dawson did receive support (for example, Darwin, G.F. Matthews, Bigsby and Rupert Jones expressed support for their views), but there were many more people opposed to their views than supported them.


The debate raged until 1894 when specimens that were clearly formed by the metamorphism of limestone were found as blocks ejected from Mount Somma near Mount Vesuvius in Italy.  These specimens  were said to be identical to Eozoon.  Limestone altered by magma and ejected from a volcano is not a fossil, and most geologists were convinced that the  structure of Eozoon was therefore not a fossil.  This did not deter Dawson, who, until he died, kept asserting Eozoon was of organic origin, denying that the specimens from Somma resembled in composition, mode of occurrence, or form and structure, the Eozoon of Canada.

The above is but a summary of the controversy.  Charles F. O’Brien (1970) provides an entertaining eighteen page summary of the controversy, while Hofmann (1971) provides a seven page summary of the controversy, plus three plates showing specimens.  Both are worth reading.  O’Brien concentrates on the arguments made by the various parties,  while Hofmann concentrates on the differences between the type specimens.   O’Brien concluded that “Little doubt remains of the inorganic origin of Eozoon”, mentioning  that “The active Eozoonist cause died with Dawson”.  Hofmann concludes that Eozoon is inorganic, mentioning that the problem of the origin of the Burgess and Huntingdon types lies within the realms of metamorphic petrology and mineralogy, that for the Côte St. Pierre type, a “convincing case for an origin by contact metamorphism” was made,  that the Grand Calumet type “appears to be a fracture-filling phenomenon” as does the Tudor type.   Hofmann does note that the Huntingdon type has “a certain resemblance to lamellar stromatolites ...[but] this resemblance is only superficial... and the individual mineral bands are considerably thicker than in stromatolites”.  

Despite both O’Brien and Hofmann concluding that Eozoon is inorganic, that is not the end of the tale.    Fenton and Fenton (1952) provide an eight page summary of the Eozoon controversy  and conclude “most mineralogists maintain the conservative view that the supposed fossil is the product of metamorphism; lumps of minerals and nothing more.   A growing number of paleontologists conclude that the slightly metamorphosed masses are stromatolites of algal origin. ”  In a later book  Fenton and Fenton (1958) provide a two page summary of the Eozoon controversy and mention that “Dawson found fossils resembling Eozoon in rocks in Hastings County, Ontario.   Not only were these eozoons virtually unmodified by heat, steam, or compression: they were undeniably related to structures that have come to be know as stromatolites...  This relationship, however, did not immediately establish the eozoons as fossils.”  This was because stromatolites at that time were not considered fossils, but inorganic concretions.

It was left to work in the early 1980's by Marika S. Bourque and other members of the Ontario Geological Survey to recognize and promote the Huntingdon type Eozoon, namely quartz bands alternating with bands of tremolite and calcite, from a few miles southeast of Madoc, and found in surrounding townships, as being of biogenic origin– silicified and recrystallized  algal colonies.    Bartlett and DeKemp (1987) comment “Eozoon canadense comprises several similar, but distinct morphologies.  A biogenic origin for one of these forms, the “huntingdon” type, has recently gained general acceptance, largely due to the contribution of M.S. Bourque to the present study.  This does not, however, imply an organic origin for the other Eozoon canadense forms...”   R. M. Easton (1992), relying on Bourque and deKemp, commented “Eozoon canadense huntingdon is an algal-laminate stromatolite.   Other E. canadense types, however, may not be biosedimentary in origin and should be regarded for the moment as pseudofossils...”

One is left to wonder whether the Tudor type and the other more metamorphosed types are also stromatolites.   Fenton and Fenton (1952) comment:

“A few radicals– or are they true conservatives?– suspect that even the most highly metamorphosed masses are also fossils, but have been changed so greatly that their true nature appears only when banks or reefs are examined in the original rock.  All factions agree on just one point: Eozoon is not a foraminifer, as Dawson and Carpenter tried to prove."

Christopher Brett
Perth, Ontario
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References

Bartlett, J .R.  and DeKemp , E. A., 1987
Lithofacies, Stromatolite Localities, Metallic Mineral Occurrences, and Geochemical Anomalies associated with Carbonate Metasediments of the Burleigh Falls-Bancroft-Madoc Area, Southern Ontario.  Ontario Geological Survey, Map. P.3079

Bourque, Marika S., 1981
Stratigraphy and Sedimentation of Carbonate Metasediments Within the Grenville Supergroup,  Ontario Geological Survey, Summary of Field Work, 1981 , Miscellaneous Paper 100, 77-79 

Bourque, Marika S., 1982
Stratigraphy and Sedimentation of Carbonate Metasediments within the Grenville Supergroup
in the Havelock-Madoc-Bancroft Area,  Ontario Geological Survey, Summary of Field Work, 1982, Miscellaneous Paper 106,  89-91 

Easton, R. M., 1992
The Grenville Province and Proterozoic History of Central and Southern Ontario, Chapter 19 in Geology of Ontario, Ontario Geological Survey Special Volume 4, Part 1, pages 715-904 at 796-797

Fenton, Carroll Lane and Fenton, Mildred Adams, 1952
Giants of Geology, Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, New York

Fenton, Carroll Lane and Fenton, Mildred Adams, 1958
The Fossil Book: A Record of Prehistoric Life, Doubleday, New York
   
Hofmann, H. J., 1971
Precambrian Fossils, Pseudofossils and Problematica in Canada,
Geological Survey of Canada, Bulletin 189, 146 pages

Logan, W. E, 1863
Geology of Canada, Geological Survey of Canada, Report of Progress from its Commencement to 1863, Montreal, Dawson Brothers, 983 pages

O’Brien, Charles F., 1970
Eozoon Canadense “The Dawn animal of Canada”, ISIS, A Journal of the History of Science Society, Volume 61, No. 2, 206-223

Books Written on Eozoon

Dawson, J. William, 1875,
The Dawn of Life: Being the History of the Oldest Known Fossil Remains, And Their Relations to Geological Time and to the Development of the Animal Kingdom
Dawson Brothers, Montreal,   239 pages
This book was also released in 1875 in a second edition of two thousand as:
Life’s Dawn on Earth: Being the History of the Oldest Known Fossil Remains, And Their Relations to Geological Time and to the Development of the Animal Kingdom
Hodder and Stoughton, London, England,   239 pages
https://books.google.ca/books?id=mQrWjgEACAAJ

Dawson, Sir J. William, 1888,
On Specimens of Eozoon Canadense and Their Geological and Other Relations.
Peter Redpath Museum, McGill University, Montreal, 106 pages

King,  William and Rowney, Thomas Henry,  1881 
An Old Chapter of the Geological Record with a New Interpretation: Or, Rock-metamorphism (especially the Methylosed Kind) and Its Resultant Imitations of Organisms: With an Introduction Giving an Annotated History of the Controversy on the So-called "Eozoon Canadense," and an Appendix
London: John Van Voorst,  https://books.google.ca/books?id=ocq7AAAAIAAJ
Preface and introduction: pages i-lvii, plus 142 Pages of text and plates;
Pages ix - lvii summarize King and Rowney’s views of the papers on Eozoon written from  1858 to 1880

Hauer, Max, 1885,
Das Eozoon canadense. Eine micro-geologische Studis, 55 pages with 18 photographic plates. Leipzig, Germany.