California Basin Studies (CaBS). Final contract report
The California Continental Borderland`s present configuration dates from about 4 to 5 X 10{sup 6} years Before Present (B.P.) and is the most recent of several configurations of the southern California margin that have evolved after the North America Plate over-rode the East Pacific Rise about 30 X 10{sup 6} years ago. The present morphology is a series of two to three northwest-southeast trending rows of depressions separated by banks and insular ridges. Two inner basins, Santa Monica and San Pedro, have been the site for the Department of Energy-funded California Basin Study (CaBS) Santa Monica and San Pedro Basins contain post-Miocene sediment thicknesses of about 2.5 and 1.5 km respectively. During the Holocene (past 10,000 years) about 10-12 m have accumulated. The sediment entered the basin by one or a combination of processes including particle infall (mainly as bioaggregates) from surface waters, from nepheloid plumes (surface, mid-depths and near-bottom), from turbidity currents, mass movements, and to a very minor degree direct precipitation. In Santa Monica Basin, during the last century, particle infall and nepheloid plume transport have been the most common processes. The former dominates in the central basin floor in water depths from 900 to 945 m. where a characteristic silt-clay with a typical mean diameter of about 0.006 mm, phi standard deviation.
- Research Organization:
- University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA (United States). Dept. of Geological Sciences
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- FG03-86ER60440
- OSTI ID:
- 10117876
- Report Number(s):
- DOE/ER/60440-T1; ON: DE94005851; TRN: 94:004518
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: [1991]
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
California Basin Study (CaBS): (The role of zooplankton and micronektron in the cycling and remineralization of chemical materials in the Southern California Bight): Progress report 6, May 1985--November 1988
(The role of zooplankton in the cycling and remineralization of chemical materials in the Southern California Bight): California Basin Study: DOE west coast basin program: Progress report 4, (June 1987--June 1988)