Geology of New England passive margin
The New England continental margin began to develop in the Middle Triassic, when rifting of Precambrian/Paleozoic terrane produced a complex arrangement of horsts and grabens. During the Late Triassic-Early Jurassic, these grabens were filled with terrigenous clastics, volcanics, and evaporites. When plate separation took place and seafloor spreading began approximately 195 to 190 m.y.B.P., the newly formed continental edge was uplifted and eroded, truncating preexisting rift structures. As North America began to drift away from Africa, subsidence occurred along a series of normal faults now beneath the outer continental shelf. This hinge zone may represent the boundary between continental crust and a transitional zone of continental and oceanic crustal fragments. Atop the faulted and subsiding crustal platform, thick sediments were deposited. The lower part of the drift sequence is an evaporite-carbonate unit of Early-Middle Jurassic age, and the upper part is a clastic wedge of Middle Jurassic to Cenozoic age. More than 80% of these sediments are Jurassic. Their total thickness may be as much as 13 km beneath the southeastern part of Georges Bank.
- Research Organization:
- Woods Hole Oceanographic Inst., MA
- OSTI ID:
- 6756702
- Journal Information:
- Am. Assoc. Pet. Geol. Bull.; (United States), Journal Name: Am. Assoc. Pet. Geol. Bull.; (United States) Vol. 64:4; ISSN AAPGB
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
020200 -- Petroleum-- Reserves
Geology
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58 GEOSCIENCES
580100* -- Geology & Hydrology-- (-1989)
CARBON COMPOUNDS
CARBONATES
CONTINENTAL CRUST
CONTINENTAL MARGIN
DEPOSITION
EARTH CRUST
GEOLOGIC AGES
GEOLOGIC FAULTS
GEOLOGIC STRUCTURES
GEOLOGY
JURASSIC PERIOD
MESOZOIC ERA
NORTH AMERICA
NORTH ATLANTIC REGION
OCEANIC CRUST
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PLATE TECTONICS
SEA-FLOOR SPREADING
SEDIMENTS
TECTONICS
TRIASSIC PERIOD
USA