Middle to late Miocene canyon cutting on the New Jersey continental slope: biostratigraphic and seismic stratigraphic evidence
The authors have identified and dated a major Miocene erosional surface (M1) on the New Jersey continental slope. This surface was penetrated at Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) Site 612, which was drilled near the thalweg of a buried V-shaped canyon. Biostratigraphic data at Site 612 firmly constrain the age of strata above the buried canyon surface as Zones CN7 (N=NN9) and N16 (lowermost upper Miocene); the upper Miocene surface at Site 612 lies above lowermost Oligocene strata because of coalesced unconformities. The authors traced the M1 erosional surface to the COST B-3 well where upper middle Miocene strata underlie it. Biostratigraphic studies of other New Jersey continental slope boreholes (ASP 14, ASP 15) suggest that elsewhere the sediments immediately below the M1 surface encompass the Globorotalia fohsi robusta Zone (=Zone N12-earliest N13; middle middle Miocene). The best age estimate is that M1 was eroded between 11.5 and 10.0 Ma. This erosional event apparently correlates with a similar even on the Irish and Florida continental margins and with oxygen-isotope evidence for a glacio-eustatic lowering.
- Research Organization:
- Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory of Columbia Univ., Palisades, NY (USA)
- OSTI ID:
- 5334640
- Journal Information:
- Geology; (United States), Journal Name: Geology; (United States) Vol. 15:6; ISSN GLGYB
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
580100* -- Geology & Hydrology-- (-1989)
AGE ESTIMATION
BOREHOLES
CAVITIES
CENOZOIC ERA
CONTINENTAL MARGIN
CONTINENTAL SLOPE
CORRELATIONS
DRILL CORES
EROSION
EUROPE
FEDERAL REGION II
FEDERAL REGION IV
FLORIDA
FOSSILS
GEOLOGIC AGES
GEOLOGIC HISTORY
GEOLOGY
GEOPHYSICAL SURVEYS
IRELAND
ISOTOPES
MIOCENE EPOCH
NEW JERSEY
NORTH AMERICA
OXYGEN ISOTOPES
SEISMIC SURVEYS
STRATIGRAPHY
SURVEYS
TERTIARY PERIOD
USA
WESTERN EUROPE