The New Jersey Transect: stratigraphic framework and depositional history of a sediment-rich passive margin ( USA).

Abstract

The results from Leg 95 of the Deep Sea Drilling Project bring to completion a series of geological and geophysical studies along a 700-km transect of the New Jersey continental margin. Integration of outcrop, borehole, and seismic reflection data along this transect has revealed the regional stratigraphic framework and has allowed a comprehensive interpretation of the depositional history of the Baltimore Canyon Trough and the adjacent North American Basin. The depositional sequences documented at the boreholes are extrapolated along the grid of seismic profiles to produce isopach maps. Massive downslope gravity flows have dominated both the depositional and erosional history of the New Jersey margin during most of the last 135 m.y. The importance of periodic widespread erosion is recorded by correlative unconformities at the boreholes. These unconformities also correlate well with supercycle boundaries of the Vail depositional model, thereby providing field validation of the supercycle framework of the model. -from Author