Spaces for field trips are limited and will be given on a first come first serve basis. Priority is first given to students attending the conference.
Field Trip #1
Step into the Cambrian at Manuels River + (Nearly) 3D Ediacaran fossils from Upper Island Cove: Insights into the life and times of the earliest animal-like fossils.
Part 1) Here we will take a tour through the Cambrian stratigraphy of the Avalon Peninsula. Starting off
our tour of the Cambrian, we will check out the microbial mats of the lower Cambrian Smith
Point Formation and continue on to Manuels River. Here we will see several species of trilobites
from the Orders Redlichiida, Ptychopariida, and Agnostida. Together, these well preserved
trilobites are found in the green to grey shales of the Manuels River Formation (middle
Cambrian, Miaolingian).
Part 2) The famous Upper Island Cove site only an hour drive from St. John’s includes an abundant fauna of Ediacaran fossils including the fractal like rangeomorphs and iconic Ediacaran fossils like Charnia and Charniodiscus, come and join us to learn about recent advances in understanding these fossils and their preservation with Dr. Duncan McIlroy and the @MUNPaleobiology Crowd.
Field Trip #2
The Eastern Avalon High-Alumina Belt: examples of Neoproterozoic epithermal alteration and related gold mineralization, eastern Avalon Zone, Newfoundland
Well-preserved examples of late Neoproterozoic epithermal systems are a hallmark of Avalonian rocks in Newfoundland. The eastern Avalon Peninsula contains well-preserved examples of both low-sulphidation and high-sulphidation style epithermal systems, the latter of which is associated with extensive advanced argillic alteration. This excursion will place these contrasting epithermal systems in the geological framework now provided by high-resolution U-Pb geochronology and field mapping, completed over a 20-year period.
