R.N. Benson

Palynological, foraminiferal and aminostratigraphic studies of quaternary sediments from the U.S. middle Atlantic upper continental slope, continental shelf and coastal plain

Abstract A pollen climate index curve provides the basic stratigraphic subdivision of the 305 m cored Quaternary section of AMCOR 6021C located on the upper continental slope off New Jersey, U.S.A. Cold and warm intervals from top to bottom were assigned to Marine Oxygen Isotope Stages 1 through 13(?). At a sub-bottom depth of about 220 m, foraminiferal data indicate a possible hiatus, and, if so, sediments below this may be as old as Isotope Stage 16 or older. Aminostratigraphic studies yielded results that are consistent with either interpretation. Benthic foraminifers are dominated by Elphidium excavatum and Islandiella norcrossi . The planktic foraminiferal record provided no independent means of subdividing the section. The stratigraphic distribution in 6021C of six species of Quercus (oak) and aminozone determinations were applied to dating, in terms of presumed Oxygen Isotope Stages, of other offshore core hole samples and some onshore Quaternary deposits of Delaware. Stratigraphic information from AMCOR sites 6021 and 6009 correlated to seismic reflection profiles that cross the shelf/slope break indicate that the thickest accumulations of terrigenous Quaternary sediments are located along the outer continental shelf/upper continental slope offshore the northeastern United States.

Age Estimates of the Seaward-Dipping Volcanic Wedge, Earliest Oceanic Crust, and Earliest Drift-Stage Sediments Along the North American Atlantic Continental Margin

Owing to their depths of burial along and adjacent to the North American continental margin, there is no direct evidence obtained from boreholes for the ages of the seaward-dipping volcanic wedge, earliest drift-stage sediments overlying the wedge, and the earliest Atlantic oceanic crust between the East Coast (ECMA) and Blake Spur (BSMA) magnetic anomalies. Maximum ages of late Sinemurian for drift-stage sediments have been determined from exploration wells in the Scotian Basin. A similar age is postulated for those sediments in the Georges Bank Basin, but palynomorphs from exploration wells may indicate that earliest drift-stage sediments, in places associated with volcanic rocks, are of Bajocian age and occur higher in the section above the postrift unconformity as recognized on seismic lines. In the Southeast Georgia Embayment of the Blake Plateau Basin, the oldest drift-stage sediments overlying the postrift unconformity that were drilled are of Kimmeridgian-Tithonian age. In the Baltimore Canyon Trough, the volcanic wedge overlies the postrift unconformity which truncates buried synrift rocks that may be as young as Sinemurian. In the Carolina Trough and Blake Plateau Basin, a possible offshore flood basalt marking the postrift unconformity and traced as a reflector to the volcanic wedge may correspond to a subsurface flood basalt onshore that may be part of CAMP (Hettangian). Alternatively, its magmatic source may have been that of the possibly younger volcanic wedge. Sea-floor-spreading-rate lines based on the latest Jurassic time scales and extended to the BSMA and ECMA indicate ages of 166 and 171 Ma for the BSMA and 172 and 179 Ma for the ECMA. An alternative model suggests a middle Pliensbachian/early Toarcian age (188 -190 Ma) for the igneous activity that produced the volcanic wedge and earliest oceanic crust.

Geologic framework of the offshore region adjacent to Delaware

Abstract Several multichannel, common depth point (CDP) seismic reflection profiles concentrated in the area of the entrance to Delaware Bay provide a tie between the known onshore geology of the Coastal Plain of Delaware and the offshore geology of the Baltimore Canyon Trough. The data provide a basis for understanding the geologic framework and petroleum resource potential of the area immediately offshore Delaware. Our research has focused on buried early Mesozoic rift basins and their geologic history. Assuming that the buried basins are analogous to the exposed Newark Supergroup basins of Late Triassic-Early Jurassic age, the most likely possibility for occurrence of hydrocarbon source beds in the area of the landward margin of the Baltimore Canyon Trough is presumed to be lacustrine, organic-rich shales probably present in the basins. Although buried basins mapped offshore Delaware are within reach of drilling, no holes have been drilled to date; therefore, direct knowledge of source, reservoir, and sealing beds is absent. Buried rift basins offshore Delaware show axial trends ranging from NW-SE to NNE-SSW. Seismic reflection profiles are too widely spaced to delineate basin boundaries accurately. Isopleths of two-way travel time representing basin fill suggest that, structurally, the basins are grabens and half-grabens. As shown on seismic reflection profiles, bounding faults of the basins intersect or merge with low-angle fault surfaces that cut the pre-Mesozoic basement. The rift basins appear to have formed by Mesozoic extension that resulted in reverse motion on reactivated basement thrust faults that originated from compressional tectonics during the Paleozoic. Computer-plotted structure contour maps derived from analysis of seismic reflection profiles provide information on the burial history of the rift basins. The postrift unconformity bevels the rift basins and, in the offshore area mapped, ranges from 2000 to 12,000 m below present sea level. The oldest postrift sediments that cover the more deeply buried rift basins are estimated to be of Middle Jurassic age (Bajocian-Bathonian), the probable time of opening of the Atlantic Ocean basin and onset of continental drift about 175–180 m.y. ago. By late Oxfordian-early Kimmeridgian time, the less deeply buried basins nearshore Delaware had been covered. A time-temperature index of maturity plot of one of the basins indicates that only dry gas would be present in reservoirs in synrift rocks buried by more than 6000 m of postrift sediments and in the oldest (Bathonian?-Callovian?) postrift rocks. Less deeply buried synrift rocks landward of the basin modeled might still be within the oil generation window.

E-3 Southwestern Pennsylvania to Baltimore Canyon Trough

DNAG Transect E-3. Part of GSA’s DNAG Continent-Ocean Transect Series, this transect contains all or most of the following: free-air gravity and magnetic anomaly profiles, heat flow measurements, geologic cross section with no vertical exaggeration, multi-channel seismic reflection profiles, tectonic kindred cross section with vertical exaggeration, geologic map, stratigraphic diagram, and an index map. All transects are on a scale of 1:500,000.