Buried fluvial channels off New Jersey; did sea-level lowstands expose the entire shelf during the Miocene?

High-resolution multichannel seismic profiles from the New Jersey continental margin reveal that some middle to late Miocene sea-level falls exposed the entire continental shelf. At several sequence boundaries, fluvial channels occur landward of the clinoform breakpoints that mark paleo-shelf edges....

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geology (Boulder) 1999-03, Vol.27 (3), p.203-206
Main Authors: Fulthorpe, Craig S, Austin, Jr, Mountain, Gregory S
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
applied (geophysical surveys & methods)
Atlantic Ocean
buried features
Cenozoic
channels
continental margin sedimentation
continental shelf
Geological time
Geology
geophysical methods
geophysical profiles
geophysical surveys
Geophysics
high-resolution methods
Leg 174A
Marine
Miocene
multichannel methods
Neogene
New Jersey
North Atlantic
Northwest Atlantic
Ocean Drilling Program
ODP Site 1071
ODP Site 1072
ODP Site 1073
paleogeography
progradation
sea-level changes
sedimentation
seismic methods
seismic profiles
sequence stratigraphy
STRATAFORM
Stratigraphy
surveys
Tertiary
United States
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Summary:High-resolution multichannel seismic profiles from the New Jersey continental margin reveal that some middle to late Miocene sea-level falls exposed the entire continental shelf. At several sequence boundaries, fluvial channels occur landward of the clinoform breakpoints that mark paleo-shelf edges. The seismically observed progradation therefore resulted from sediment delivery to the shelf edge by rivers during lowstands. Suspended sediment crossing the relatively shallow water (30-40 m) shelf also fostered progradation during highstands. River systems reaching the outermost shelf were small and closely spaced; they approximated a line source of sediment. This finding helps to explain the observed linearity of Miocene shelf edges. Although these systems discharged near clinoform tops, they did not form canyons incising the clinoforms; such canyons were rare in this active depositional setting, in contrast to their prevalence on the modern continental slope.
ISSN:0091-7613
1943-2682
DOI:10.1130/0091-7613(1999)027<0203:BFCONJ>2.3.CO;2