Safe Science Along the Mid-Atlantic Transect (MAT):
Site-Specific Hazards Surveying on the Continental Terrace Offshore New Jersey in Support of Sea-Level Objectives
Principal Investigator: James A. Austin, Jr.
Funded by: Joint
Oceanographic Institutions, Inc.
A long-term, coordinated approach by the Ocean Drilling Program towards understanding
the history of global sea-level change has been developed as a product of deliberations by
the Sea Level Working Group (SL-WG). The report of the SL-WG has concluded that passive
margin (i.e., marginal marine to slope/rise) transects are critical for estimating the
magnitudes and rates of sea-level fluctuations. The SL-WG also identified Leg 150 on the
New Jersey margin as the first step in estimating sea-level magnitude fluctuations in the
"Neogene Icehouse" world. The original Leg 150 plan called for a number of sites
to be drilled through Miocene prograding clinoforms on the mid- and outer shelf. However,
safety review in the fall of 1992 denied permission for any designated Leg 150 sites in
water depths <200 m due to, among other reasons, insufficient high-resolution site-survey data. Since then the quality and quantity of geophysical data necessary (as a
minimum) for "safe" drilling operations in water depths <200 m has been established and "hazards" geophysical surveys are required in the vicinity of proposed shelf drilling sites. As part of a regional,
high-resolution MCS surveying effort to be carried out on the New Jersey continental shelf
and upper slope, UTIG and other investigators acquired "hazards" surveys at seven
originally proposed MAT shelf sites. The shiptime was supported by ONR and JOI. JOI-USSAC
funded supplemental analysis and interpretation support for the investigators involved.
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