High-Resolution Seismic Surveying for Pleistocene Sequence Stratigraphy, New Jersey
Continental Shelf and Upper Slope,
in Support of STRATAFORM (STRATA FORmation on Margins)
Principal Investigator: James A. Austin, Jr.
Funded by: Office of Naval Research
STRATAFORM's primary goal is to understand how the complex array of depositional
processes on continental margins translates into the preserved stratigraphic record. The
primary scales of interest are ~106 years into the past, and ~hundreds of meters into the
seafloor. Nested arrays of geophysical data on the shelf and upper slope are the primary
means to imaging stratigraphic successions and associated facies architecture. Low
resolution (20-100 Hz) multichannel seismic and very high-resolution (500-3500 Hz)
single-channel Huntecª profiles have already been collected offshore New Jersey. This
project supported a cruise to collect profiles in the intervening frequency band (~30-500
Hz) and to complete detailed grid surveys and assess potential hydrocarbon hazards in the
vicinity or proposed ODP drill sites. These sites will comprise a critical segment of the
Mid-Atlantic Transect (MAT), that is designed to understand the history of Neogene
sea-level on this margin. ODP drilling could also provide valuable ground truth for the
geophysical profiles collected in support of STRATAFORM. All of these data support
designation of this part of the New Jersey margin as a natural laboratory for marine
geology/geophysics and shallow water acoustics.
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