Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Late quaternary depositional systems and sea level change-Santa Monica and San Pedro Basins, California continental borderland

Journal Article · · Am. Assoc. Pet. Geol., Bull.; (United States)
OSTI ID:6932052

A suite of seismic reflection data that provides different degrees of resolution and penetration was used to map the depositional systems that have developed in Santa Monica and San Pedro basins during the late Quaternary. Submarine fan growth, particularly at the mouths of Hueneme and Redondo Canyons, has been the dominant mode of basin filling. Mass movement processes, ranging from creep to large-scale catastrophic slumping, have been important locally. In general, large-scale fan growth fits Normark's model in which the suprafan is the primary locus of coarse sediment deposition. Smaller scale morphologic and depositional patterns on the Hueneme and Redondo fans (e.g., distributary channels and coarse sediment concentrations basinward of the inner suprafan) suggest that a significant amount of coarse sediment presently bypasses the suprafans, however. Long-distance coarse sediment transport was particularly pronounced during late Wisconsinan lowstand of sea level and resulted in progradation of lower mid-fan and lower fan deposits.

Research Organization:
Exxon Production Research Co., Houston, TX
OSTI ID:
6932052
Journal Information:
Am. Assoc. Pet. Geol., Bull.; (United States), Journal Name: Am. Assoc. Pet. Geol., Bull.; (United States) Vol. 67:7; ISSN AAPGB
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English