Basement-cover relations in the southeastern Cape Breton Highlands, Nova Scotia, Canada

In the southeastern Cape Breton Highlands Neoproterozoic plutonic and metamorphic rocks outcrop in upland areas whereas Carboniferous sedimentary rocks are found in the river valleys and coastal lowlands. Detailed analysis of the contacts between these two groups of rocks including mapping, geometric constructions of the contact relations, structural geological investigations, petrographic analysis and geophysical map interpretations show that the basement rocks were emplaced by a thrust fault that extends at least from the Baddeck River valley to North River, and possibly includes klippen south and east of the highlands. The thrust fault transported a slab of rock with minimum thickness of 200 m a distance of at least 8 km over Horton and Windsor group rocks. East-directed translation of the thrust block likely occurred during the Alleghanian orogeny, and appears to mirror movement previously identified in the northern and western Cape Breton Highlands, implying that much of the upland geology is allochthonous, but likely rooted in the central highlands as positive flower structure

The Grand Old Duke of York; Present-Day and Future Canadian Geoscience Education and Labour Market Trends

The job market for Canadian earth scientists is significantly driven by the country’s strong resource industry. Enrolment in earth science degree programs is growing, but the demand from the job market is expected to outpace the projected supply from domestic programs. If the job market will indeed need as many workers as predicted, it will be necessary to change tactics for recruitment into Canadian university programs, in order to provide the market with the necessary workers.SOMMAIRELe marché du travail canadien en sciences de la Terre est particulièrement à l’importante industrie primaire du pays.  Le nombre des inscriptions à des programmes de diplômation en sciences de Terre est en croissance, mais on s’attend à ce que la demande du marché du travail dépasse l'offre projetée des programmes nationaux de formation.  Si les besoins de l’emploi s’avèrent, il faudra qu’on change de tactique de recrutement dans les universités canadiennes pour les programmes géosciences, pour répondre à la demande

Recent Labour and Education Trends Regarding Geoscientists and Geological Engineers in Canada

A review of information from Statistics Canada and the Council of Chairs of Canadian Earth Science Departments examined the geoscience workforce in Canada over the last two decades through economic cycles and environmental transitions. After a period of growth in Canada (2006 to 2011), geoscientist numbers in the labour market declined by 11% from 2011 to 2021, whereas the numbers of geological engineers grew by 56%. The combined total for both classifications remained fairly constant. By Census 2021 Canada had about 11,000 geoscientists (including oceanographers) and about 4,000 geological engineers. Professional, scientific and technical services, mining, quarrying and oil and gas extraction are the major employment sectors. Employment for geoscientists is cyclical and tied to economic and commodity-price cycles. Alberta experienced the largest decline in geoscientist numbers (-34.5%), correlated with reduced oil- and gas-development investments from 2014 to 2020. Growth in other provinces (e.g. British Columbia, Ontario) partly offset the decline in Alberta. Nearly 30% of geoscientists are immigrants, as defined by their countries of birth. The university education supply pipeline shows that enrolment in core geoscience and geological engineering undergraduate programs dropped significantly (50% decline from 2015 to 2022) with a corresponding drop in graduations. However, enrolments in Earth Science programs related to aspects beyond core geoscience and geological engineering (e.g. environmental science in its broadest sense) tripled between 2007 and 2022. If these trends continue, the majority of students will be enrolled in these associated programs rather than graduating with core geoscience knowledge and skills. There is a need for more comprehensive and up-to-date data to represent the characteristics of the geoscience workforce accurately and to inform policy decisions and individual career choices. The current situation implies that shortages of qualified geoscience professionals could develop in future years.Un examen des données de Statistique Canada et du Conseil des directeurs des départements canadiens des sciences de la Terre a porté sur la main-d’oeuvre en géosciences au Canada au cours des deux dernières décennies, à travers les cycles économiques et les transitions environnementales. Après une période de croissance au Canada (de 2006 à 2011), le nombre de géoscientifiques sur le marché du travail a diminué de 11 % de 2011 à 2021, tandis que le nombre d’ingénieurs géologues a augmenté de 56 %. Le total combiné des deux classifications est demeuré relativement constant. Au recensement de 2021, le Canada comptait environ 11 000 géoscientifiques (y compris les océanographes) et environ 4 000 ingénieurs géologues. Les services professionnels, scientifiques et techniques, les mines, les carrières et l’extraction de pétrole et de gaz sont les principaux secteurs d'emploi. L'emploi des géoscientifiques est cyclique et lié aux cycles économiques et aux prix des matières premières. L’Alberta a connu la plus forte baisse du nombre de géoscientifiques (-34,5 %), en corrélation avec la réduction des investissements dans l’exploitation pétrolière et gazière de 2014 à 2020. La croissance dans d’autres provinces (par example, la Colombie-Britannique et l’Ontario) a partiellement compensé le déclin en Alberta. Près de 30 % des géoscientifiques sont des immigrants, selon leur pays de naissance. Le pipeline de l’offre d’enseignement universitaire montre que les inscriptions aux programmes de premier cycle en géosciences et en génie géologique ont chuté de manière significative (baisse de 50 % de 2015 à 2022), ce qui s’est traduit par une baisse correspondante du nombre de diplômes. Cependant, les inscriptions aux programmes de sciences de la Terre liés à des aspects autres que les géosciences fondamentales et le genie géologique (par exemple, les sciences de l’environnement au sens large) ont triplé entre 2007 et 2022. Si cette tendance se poursuit, la majorité des étudiants seront inscrits dans ces programmes connexes plutôt que d’obtenir un diplôme avec des connaissances et des compétences fondamentales en géosciences. Des données plus complètes et actualisées sont nécessaires pour représenter avec précision les caractéristiques de la main-d’oeuvre en géosciences et éclairer les décisions politiques et les choix de carrière individuels. La situation actuelle laisse présager une pénurie de professionnels qualifiés en géosciences dans les années à venir

Employing contact metamorphism to assess the conditions of pluton emplacement and timing of recrystallization in southwestern Kellys Mountain, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia

At Kellys Mountain, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, the late Neoproterozoic Glen Tosh formation (a low-grade metapsammite–metapelite unit of the George River Metamorphic Suite) has been intruded by diorite, granodiorite, and granite plutons, and the diorite hosts a narrow contact metamorphic aureole. New mapping and sampling in the contact aureole reveals that the metasedimentary rocks have reached amphibolite-facies metamorphism resulting in the development of neoformed biotite, muscovite, cordierite, ilmenite, garnet, andalusite, sillimanite, monazite, and spinel within the meta-pelite, a mineral assemblage also found in the Kellys Mountain Gneiss as a result of low-pressure regional metamorphism. Neoformed minerals and the disappearance of foliation defines a contact metamorphic aureole within 300 m of the pluton contacts. Petrographic and microprobe analyses of equilibrium assemblages in metapelitic units of the contact aureole yielded metamorphic pressures of 250 MPa, implying an intrusion depth of ∼9 km, with temperatures ranging from 365 to 590 °C. The presence of earlier-formed andalusite and garnet indicates the rocks may have initially undergone a low-pressure regional metamorphic event prior to contact metamorphism. Monazite in the contact aureole was dated using in-situ U–Pb methods and yielded an age of 480.9 ± 3.7 Ma, interpreted as the time of formation of the contact metamorphic aureole.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author

Identification of the Bloody Creek structure, a possible impact crater in southwestern Nova Scotia, Canada

Abstract--An approximately 0.4 km diameter elliptical structure formed in Devonian granite in southwestern Nova Scotia, herein named the Bloody Creek structure (BCS), is identified as a possible impact crater. Evidence for an impact origin is based on integrated geomorphic, geophysical, and petrographic data. A near-continuous geomorphic rim and a 10 m deep crater that is infilled with lacustrine sediments and peat define the BCS. Ground penetrating radar shows that the crater has a depressed inner floor that is sharply ringed by a 1 m high buried scarp. Heterogeneous material under the floor, interpreted as deposits from collapse of the transient cavity walls, is overlain by stratified and faulted lacustrine and wetland sediments. Alteration features found only in rim rocks include common grain comminution, polymict lithic microbreccias, kink-banded feldspar and biotite, single and multiple sets of closely spaced planar microstructures (PMs) in quartz and feldspar, and quartz mosaicism, rare reduced mineral birefringence, and chlorite showing plastic deformation and flow microtextures. Based on their form and crystallographic orientations, the quartz PMs consist of planar deformation features that document shock-metamorphic pressures ≤25 GPa. The age of the BCS is not determined. The low depth to diameter ratio of the crater, coupled with anomalously high shock-metamorphic pressures recorded at its exposed rim, may be a result of significant post-impact erosion. Alternatively, impact onto glacier ice during the waning stages of Wisconsinian deglaciation (about 12 ka BP) may have resulted in dissipation of much impact energy into the ice, resulting in the present morphology of the BCS