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

Schlee, John Stevens; Behrendt, John Charles; Mattick, Robert E.; Taylor, P. T.

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).

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USGS Numbered Series

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15831

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Schlee, John Stevens; Behrendt, John Charles; Mattick, Robert E.; Taylor, P. T.

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ENGLISH

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45 p. :ill., charts ;28 cm.

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This report is preliminary and has not been edited or reviewed for conformity with Geological Survey standards or nomenclature

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U.S. Geological Survey,

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Open-File Report

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OFR

Citation Series Number:

75-60

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Structure of continental margin off Mid-Atlantic states (Baltimore Canyon Trough); 1975; OFR; 75-60; Schlee, John Stevens; Behrendt, John Charles; Mattick, Robert E.; Taylor, P. T.

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1975

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citation/reference

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Structure of continental margin off Mid-Atlantic states (Baltimore Canyon Trough); 1975; OFR; 75-60; Schlee, John Stevens; Behrendt, John Charles; Mattick, Robert E.; Taylor, P. T.