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Publications

The Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program publications are listed here. Search by topics and by year.

Filter Total Items: 2141

Burial diagenesis: out of sight, out of mind!

No abstract available.
Authors
Peter A. Scholle, Robert S. Halley

Coupling of ocean bottom seismometers to sediment: Results of tests with the U.S. Geological Survey ocean bottom seismometer

The response of an ocean bottom seismometer (OBS) to a transient pull that excites the natural OBS-sediment coupling resonance can be modeled as a mass-spring-dashpot system in which the resonant frequency and damping are functions of instrument mass and bearing radius and of the physical properties of the sediment (primarily the shear modulus). For the very soft sediments sometimes...
Authors
Anne Trehu

New York Bight fault

High-resolution, single-channel and multichannel seismic-reflection profiles in the New York Bight provide 7 crossings of a 50-km-long fault that trends north-northeast for 30 km from its southern end, then bends northeast, and may continue northward beneath Long Island. Displacement, which is consistently down to the west, decreases upsection and suggests a growth fault. Dip of the...
Authors
Deborah Hutchinson, John A. Grow

Block Island fault: A Paleozoic crustal boundary on the Long Island platform

A major fault cutting through most of the crust can be identified and mapped on the Long Island platform using multichannel seismic reflection profiles and magnetic data. The fault, here called the Block Island fault (BIF), strikes north-northeast, dips westward at low angle, and does not resemble the thin-skinned thrust faulting observed in the foreland of the Appalachians. The BIF is...
Authors
Deborah Hutchinson, Kim D. Klitgord, R. S. Detrick

Occurrence and preservation of Eocene squamariacean and coralline rhodoliths: Eau, Tonga

A widespread rhodolith facies occurs within middle Eocene limestones of Eua, Tonga (Fig. 1). These limestones, first described by Hoffmeister (1932), represent a portion of a broad, early Tertiary platform that developed in the Tonga area prior to disruption and uplift by later Tertiary plate movements (Kroenke and Tongilava 1975). Algal rhodoliths form beds several meters thick within...
Authors
Binyamin Buchbinder, Robert S. Halley

Why deposits of longitudinal dunes are rarely recognized in the geologic record

Dunes that are morphologically of linear type, many of which are probably of longitudinal type in a morphodynamic sense, are common in modern deserts, but their deposits are rarely identified in aeolian sandstones. One reason for non-recognition of such dunes is that they can migrate laterally when they are not exactly parallel to the long-term sand-transport direction, thereby...
Authors
David M. Rubin, Ralph Eugene Hunter

Use of strontium isotopes to constrain the timing and mode of dolomitization of upper Cenozoic sediments in a core from San Salvador, Bahamas

The 87Sr/86Sr ratios and the activity ratios of 234U/238U and 230Th/238U have been measured in dolomites from a 168-m-deep core taken on the island of San Salvador, Bahamas. These data suggest two periods of dolomitization. The first episode dolomitized Miocene age sediments during the latest Miocene, and the second dolomitized the Pliocene portion of the core and was still active as...
Authors
Peter K. Swart, Joaquin Ruiz, Charles W Holmes

Rippled scour depressions on the inner continental shelf off central California

Side-scan sonar records taken during the recent Coastal Ocean Dynamics Experiment (CODE) show elongate, shore-normal rippled depressions of low relief on the inner continental shelf off central California between Bodega Bay and Point Arena. These features extend up to 2 km from the coast into water depths of up to 65 m. The proposed mechanism for their generation is storm-generated...
Authors
David A. Cacchione, David E. Drake, William E. Grant, George B. Tate

Spring sapping on the lower continental slope, offshore New Jersey

Undersea discharge of ground water during periods of lower sea level may have eroded valleys on part of the lower continental slope, offshore New Jersey. Steep-headed basins, cliffed and terraced walls, and irregular courses of these valleys may have been produced by sapping of exposed near-horizontal Tertiary strata. Joints in Eocene calcareous rocks would have localized ground-water...
Authors
James M. Robb

Magnetic properties of the Bay of Islands ophiolite suite and implications for the magnetization of oceanic crust

Rock magnetic properties, opaque mineralogy, and degree of metamorphism were determined for 101 unoriented samples from the North Arm and Blow-Me-Down massifs of the Bay of Islands ophiolite complex, Newfoundland. The weathered and metamorphosed extrusive basalt samples have a weak, secondary magnetization arising from oxidation and exsolution of ilmenite of unknown origin. The initial...
Authors
B. Ann Swift, H. Paul Johnson

Alternative diagenetic models for cretaceous talus deposits, Deep Sea Drilling Project Site 536, Gulf of Mexico

Talus deposits recovered from Site 536 show evidence of aragonite dissolution, secondary porosity development, and calcite cementation. Although freshwater diagenesis could account for the petrographic features of the altered talus deposits, it does not uniquely account for isotopic or trace-element characteristics. Also, the hydrologic setting required for freshwater alteration is not...
Authors
Robert S. Halley, B. J. Pierson, Wolfgang Schlager

Slope-stability analysis and creep susceptibility of Quaternary sediments on the northeastern United States continental slope

The continental slope off the northeastern United States is a relatively steep, morphologically complex surface which shows abundant evidence of submarine slides and related processes. Because this area may be developed by the petroleum industry, questions arise concerning the potential for further slope failures or unacceptable deformations and the conditions necessary to cause such...
Authors
James S. Booth, Armand J. Silva, Stephen J. Jordan
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