Cenozoic ice volume and margin erosion
Cenozoic benthic foraminiferal oxygen isotopic data indicates that the world was glaciated in the early Oligocene, middle Oligocene, latest Oligocene, and middle Miocene to Recent, but are insufficient to resolve if the world was ice free at other times. The authors relate Oligocene and younger intervals of ice growth to continental margin erosional events. Relationships between eustasy and continental margin sedimentation are controversial. Coastal onlap is indirectly linked with rising sea level, occurring either when subsidence exceeds the rate of sea level fall or during sea-level rise. Although chronostratigraphic breaks are often local in origin, inter-regional unconformities result from eustatic lowerings. Strong evidence for eustatic lowerings is provided by the incision of canyons on margins. Chronostratigraphic breaks and canyons have noted on the US and Irish margins near the lower/upper Oligocene and middle/upper Miocene boundaries. These periods of margin erosion are temporally linked with oxygen isotopic evidence for ice growth, with erosion correlating with the greatest rate of ice growth. If the Eocene was ice free, there may have been mechanistic differences between Eocene erosion and Oligocene to Recent glacio-eustatic erosion. The authors present seismic stratigraphic evidence from the New Jersey margin that indicates contrasting styles of margin erosion between the Lower Tertiary and Upper Tertiary.
- Research Organization:
- Columbia Univ., Palisades, NY (USA)
- OSTI ID:
- 6462563
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-8510489-
- Journal Information:
- Geol. Soc. Am., Abstr. Programs; (United States), Journal Name: Geol. Soc. Am., Abstr. Programs; (United States) Vol. 17; ISSN GAAPB
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Middle to late Miocene canyon cutting on the New Jersey continental slope: biostratigraphic and seismic stratigraphic evidence
Comparison of Tertiary depositional sequences, age of bounding unconformities, and coastal onlap patterns in Baltimore Canyon Trough, offshore New Jersey, and Main Pass, offshore Alabama
Related Subjects
580100* -- Geology & Hydrology-- (-1989)
ANIMALS
CENOZOIC ERA
CLIMATE MODELS
CONTINENTAL MARGIN
DEPOSITION
EROSION
FEDERAL REGION II
FORAMINIFERA
GEOLOGIC AGES
GEOLOGIC HISTORY
GEOLOGY
GEOPHYSICAL SURVEYS
GLACIERS
GLOBAL ASPECTS
ICE
ICE CAPS
INVERTEBRATES
ISOTOPES
LEVELS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MICROORGANISMS
NEW JERSEY
NORTH AMERICA
OXYGEN ISOTOPES
PALEOCLIMATOLOGY
PALEONTOLOGY
PROTOZOA
SARCODINA
SEA LEVEL
SEDIMENTS
SEISMIC SURVEYS
STRATIGRAPHY
SURVEYS
USA
VARIATIONS