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Structure of continental margin off Mid-Atlantic states (Baltimore Canyon Trough)

Open-File Report 75-60
This report is preliminary and has not been edited or reviewed for conformity with Geological Survey standards or nomenclature
By: , , , and 
https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr7560

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Abstract

Increasing interest in the Atlantic continental margin as a future petroleum province has resulted in several recent papers (Emmerich, 1974; Burk and Drake, 1974) that attempt to summarize the structure and stratigraphic framework of this area. Most papers tend to portray the margin as a wedge of Mesozoic and Cenozoic sediment that thins at the edge of the shelf over a "basement ridge" and then thickens again under the continental rise. Off the northeastern United States, the sediment wedge under the shelf attains a thickness of 8-11 km in the Georges Bank basin (Schultz and Glover, 1974; Mattick and others, 1974; Sheridan, 1974b; Behrendt and others, 1974) and 12 km in thickness in the Baltimore Canyon trough off the middle Atlantic states of Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and New Jersey (fig. 1). Seaward of the continental shelf and its sediment prism, Emery and Uchupi (1972, figs. 133-135) infer slump deposits (eroded in some areas) covering a buried ridge thought to extend from the Laurentian Channel to Cape Hatteras, where it splits in two. The lower slope and continental rise are inferred by Drake and later investigators to be a thick prism of deep sea sediment (turbidites, hemipelagic clays, slump deposits) overlying oceanic basement in a welt that parallels the continental edge and reaches a maximum thickness of 6 km (Emery and Uchupi, 1972, fig. 188).

Our purpose is to present the results of a geophysical survey across the margin seaward of the middle Atlantic states that comments on the structural - stratigraphic framework of the margin.

Suggested Citation

Schlee, J.S., Behrendt, J.C, Mattick, R.E., and Taylor, P.T., 1975, Structure of continental margin off Mid-Atlantic states (Baltimore Canyon Trough): U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 1975-60, 45 p., https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/ofr7560.

ISSN: 2331-1258 (online)

Table of Contents

  • Introduction
  • Results
  • Slope Transition
  • Rise - Abyssal Plain
  • References Cited
Publication type Report
Publication Subtype USGS Numbered Series
Title Structure of continental margin off Mid-Atlantic states (Baltimore Canyon Trough)
Series title Open-File Report
Series number 75-60
DOI 10.3133/ofr7560
Edition -
Year Published 1975
Language ENGLISH
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Publisher location Reston, VA
Description 45 p. :ill., charts ;28 cm.
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