The Bic fault is exposed along the shoreline of the St. Lawrence River, 21 km southwest of Rimouski, for 210 m at Cap à l'Orignal and for 100 m at Cap Enragé. The fault brings in contact two major thrust sheets, the Des Seigneuries and the Des Iles, Cambrian lithologies of the former overlying Ordovician rocks of the latter. In the Taconic Orogen, such contacts are normally thrust faults, but the Bic fault is a dextral strike-slip fault, striking east–west and dipping southward. A study of a narrow zone straddling the fault and an adjacent part of the Des Seigneuries thrust sheet has led to the recognition of four successive stages of deformation, all compatible with a northeast–southwest-trending strain ellipsoid. The two first stages are most important: stage 1 brought about regional folding and faulting, whereas stage 2 was characterized by the development of various structural elements (C–S fabrics, stretching lineation, Riedel shears, and kink bands) exclusive to the fault zone. We infer that (i) in the study area, the Bic fault constituted a lateral ramp along which the Des Seigneuries thrust sheet slid horizontally westward; and (ii) emplacement of Ba–Pb–Zn deposits took place slightly after this movement, probably during regional uplift of the orogen in Late Ordovician to Early Silurian time. The latter hypothesis tends to be corroborated by model lead ages of galena in two deposits.
Active thrust sheet deformation over multiple rupture cycles: A quantitative basis for relating terrace folds to fault slip rates
