At the beginning of the Triassic period, Nova Scotia was located near the equator near the middle of a single supercontinent called Pangea, or "One Earth." Wedged between present-day Africa and North America, it was far from the moderating influence of the ocean. There was no Bay of Fundy, no Gulf of St. Lawrence and no Atlantic Ocean. The part of Pangea now represented by Nova Scotia was above sea level.

In the Late Triassic, the earth entered a time of great change. Parts of the earth's crust weakened and the continental plates that made up the supercontinent Pangea began to drift apart. This process formed what is now the Atlantic Ocean. Nova Scotia remained attached to the North American continental plate.

Rocks of Nova Scotia

From the Permian Period to the middle of the Triassic Period, Nova Scotia was experiencing the erosional effects of a hot, arid climate. Early to Middle Triassic rocks are therefore absent from the province.

In Nova Scotia, the opening of the Atlantic Ocean produced rifting along the Cobequid and Chedabucto Faults and their extensions in the Bay of Fundy and across the Scotian Shelf. Great rift valleys were the result of this process.

Throughout the Late Triassic, the rift valleys filled with sediment. In the Fundy region, rains of monsoon intensity swelled rivers that carried coarse sediments from the Nova Scotia highlands into the basin. Later, lakes occupied the valley floor, accumulating bottom sediments up to 1,000 m (3 000 feet) in thickness. As rifting continued, the earth's crust became thinner and basaltic lava flows were erupted.

Except for a few small exposures of Cretaceous clays and sandstones, the Early Jurassic rocks were the last rocks deposited onshore Nova Scotia before the Pleistocene glaciations.

Paleoenvironment

The rift valleys created by the opening of the Atlantic Ocean were home to the first mammals and many species of land dinosaurs, such as those found at Parrsboro. The climate was harsh, hot and dry, punctuated by intermittent and sometimes heavy rains.

In the Late Triassic, dinosaurs walked a world quite different from the one we see today. The sun beat down mercilessly on desiccated regions of sulphate soils (the remains of dried-up saline lakes) and reddish sand dunes were swept into crescent shapes by the dry, prevailing northwest wind. The Fundy Basin probably resembled Death Valley in California. Seasonal streams spilled down from distant mountains (today's eroded Cobequid Mountains) feeding shallow lakes.

The age of the dinosaurs was underway.