Coastal Plains Cores

ODP Leg 150X -Island Beach -Atlantic City -Cape May Leg 174AX -Bass River -Ancora -Ocean View -Bethany Beach -Fort Mott -Millville -Sea Girt -Cape May Zoo -Medford

The Coastal Plain Drilling Project is the onshore portion of the Ocean Drilling Program/Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (ODP/IODP) New Jersey sea level/Mid-Atlantic Transect. The Transect focuses on reconstructing global sea-level variations during the past 100 m.y. and global events in Earth History (Figure 1). Eleven onshore coreholes have been continuously cored and logged as part of the Transect.

Funding

The Coastal Plain Drilling Project is funded by the National Science Foundation (Earth Science Division, Continental Dynamics Program and Ocean Science Division, Ocean Drilling Program), the New Jersey Geological Survey (NJGS), the Delaware Geological Survey, and the United States Geological Survey Eastern Earth Surface Processes Team (EESPT).

Coreholes

Recognizing the link between onshore drilling and offshore drilling by Ocean Drilling Program Legs 150 (Mountain, Miller, Blum, et al., 1994) and 174AX (Austin, Christie-Blick, Malone, et al., 1997), the JOIDES Planning Committee (PCOM) designated onshore drilling as Leg 150X (Island Beach, Atlantic City, and Cape May coreholes; Miller et al., 1994, 1996; Miller and Snyder, eds., 1997) and 174AX (Bass River, Ancora, Ocean View, Bethany Beach, Fort Mott, Millville, and Sea Girt coreholes; Miller et al., 1997, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, in prep.).

Leg 150X. Onshore drilling began in 1993 with drilling of the Island Beach (total depth [TD] 1223 ft in the uppermost Cretaceous) and Atlantic City coreholes (TD 1452 ft in upper middle Eocene strata; Miller et al., 1994). Drilling continued in 1994 at Cape May (Miller et al., 1996; TD 1500 ft in upper Eocene strata) to complete ODP Leg 150X onshore drilling. These three sites targeted Oligocene-Miocene sequences, trying to unravel Icehouse sea-level changes (Miller and Mountain, 1994; Miller et al., 1996, 1998).

Leg 174AX. Onshore drilling continued as ODP leg 174AX by continuously coring at:

1. Bass River in Oct.-Nov. 1996 (TD 1956.5 ft in Cenomanian strata; Miller, Sugarman, Browning, et al., 1997), targeting Upper Cretaceous to Paleocene strata poorly sampled by Leg 150X;
2. Ancora in July-Aug. 1998, an updip, less deeply buried Cretaceous-Paleocene section complimentary to Bass River (TD 1170 ft in Cenomanian strata; Miller, Sugarman, Browning, et al., 1999);
3. Ocean View in Sept.-Oct. 1999, targeting upper Miocene-middle Eocene sequences (TD 1575 ft in lowermost Eocene strata; Miller, Sugarman, Browning, Pekar, et al., 2001); and
4. Bethany Beach, DE in May-June 200, targeting the thick Miocene sequences in the depocenter of the Salisbury Embayment in collaboration with the Delaware Geological Survey (TD 1470 ft in uppermost Oligocene strata; Miller, McLaughlin, Browning, et al., 2002).
5. Ft. Mott (Oct. 2001), targeting aquifers in Coniacian through Aptian sediments. The Potomac-Raritan-Magothy aquifer was found to consist of thick apparently continuous delta front sands of the transgressive systems tract overlain by anastomosing river facies of the highstand systems tract. (TD 820 ft in Lower Cretaceous [Aptian/?Barremian] strata; Sugarman et al., 2004).
6. Millville, NJ (May-June 2002) targeting Late Cretaceous sequences from southern New Jersey. Cretaceous sequences at Millville are more similar to sections in Delaware (with a thin Magothy formation and less deltaic influence) than they are to sections in northern New Jersey suggesting the South Jersey High was influencing sedimentation patterns at that time. (TD 1500 ft in Upper Cretaceous [Cenomanian] strata; Sugarman et al., 2005).
7. Sea Girt (September-November 2003) targeting Late Cretaceous sequences from northern New Jersey. Direct ties between lithofacies and gamma logs at Sea Girt have allowed the mapping of Cretaceous sequences and sedimentation patterns throughout northern New Jersey. (TD 1600 ft in lower Miocene strata; Miller et al., in press).
8. Cape May Zoo (September-October 2004) targeting middle Miocene through Pleistocene sequences. Continuing studies are helping define the distribution of Miocene sequences and aquifers in the Cape May peninsula. (TD 720 ft in Upper Cretaceous [Cenomanian] strata; Sugarman et al., in prep.).

In total, these coreholes recovered 12,290 ft from 14,986.5 ft drilled (82% recovery).

Scientific Accomplishments

Successful drilling onshore in the New Jersey Coastal Plain (onshore ODP Legs 150X and 174AX) and offshore on the NJ shelf and slope (ODP Legs 150, 174A) has provided:

1. ages for major Late Cretaceous-Cenozoic sequence boundaries;
2. causal links between the formation of sequence boundaries and the growth of ice sheets between ca. 42 and ca. 10 Ma, and hints that such a link exists in the older, supposedly ice-free world (e.g., ca. 71 Ma);
3. preliminary estimates of the amplitudes of global sea-level changes;
4. timing of major sea level falls and generation of new sea level curve for the Late Cretaceous to Recent;
5. evaluation of links among sequence stratigraphic architecture, global sea-level variations, and margin evolution; and
6. constraints on the causes of major global events in Earth history, including the middle Eocene-earliest Oligocene global cooling, the late Paleocene thermal maximum, the K/T boundary, early and late Maastrichtian events, and the Cenomanian/Turonian carbon extraction event.