Did Nova Scotia separate from, what is now New England?

Question

Looking at a map, it looks(to me) like Nova Scotia fits the outline of coastal New England. If this is true, when did it happen? Thank You

Answer 1

No, it did not, although I see the similarity, too.

The problem is you are looking at the coastline. What you should really be looking at is the contental shelf, which in most of New England is 100-200 miles SE of the coast.

When you look at the shape of the edge of the continental shelf, it becomes evident that North America was once connected to the west coast of northern Africa. These continents split around 175 million years ago.

Answer 2

When Pangaea (the supercontinent) broke up about 200 million years ago, rifting (crustal separation) occurred along the axis of what eventually became the Atlantic Ocean.

This process was not a clean split, but involved a lot of zones of rifting that never went all the way to the ocean stage. There are failed rifts from this period at several locations in the northeast (Connecticut, New jersey, Pennsylvania). The Bay of Fundy is evidently also a zone of where rifting started, but never went all the way.

So in a sense, you are right. Had this rifting gone to completion, Nova Scotia would have stayed attached to Africa. Instead, a part of Africa stayed with Nova Scotia.

Answer 3

I found this doing a quick web search. It looks quite informative and interesting.

http://geology.mynovascotia.net/education-meguma.asp