Correlation of Miocene strata on the submarine St. Croix Ridge and onland St. Croix,US Virgin Islands

The nannofossils of an hydraulic piston core from the steep scarp between the St. Croix Ridge and Virgin Islands Basin were restudied. Formerly thought to represent a Pliocene debris flow, we interpret it as an early Miocene (NN1/2) hemipelagic deposit. We correlate the seismic unit sampled by piston core with the Kingshill-Jealousy Formation present on St. Croix. These sediments likely belong to an extensive, thick, deep marine cover of the St. Croix Ridge, deposited on a metamorphic—igneous basement between early Eocene and early Miocene time. Faulting did not evidently affect this sediment cover until the late Neogene.     

Structural evolution of the northern East China Sea Shelf Basin interpreted from cross-section restoration

The northern East China Sea Shelf Basin consists of three depressions (the Domi, Jeju, and Socotra Depressions), separated by basement highs or rises. Reconstruction of depth-converted seismic reflection profiles from these depressions reveals that the northern East China Sea Shelf Basin experienced two phases of rifting, followed by regional subsidence. Initial rifting in the Late Cretaceous was driven by the NW?CSE crustal stretching of the Eurasian plate, caused by the subduction of the Pacific plate beneath the plate margin. Major extension (~15 km) took place during the early phase of basin formation. The initial rifting was terminated by regional uplift in the Late Eocene-Early Oligocene, which was probably due to reorganization of plate boundaries. Rifting resumed in the Early Oligocene; the magnitude of extension was mild (<1 km) during this period. A second phase of uplift in the Early Miocene terminated the rifting, marking the transition to the postrift phase of regional subsidence. Up to 2,600 m of sediments and basement rock were removed by erosion during and after the second phase of uplift. An inversion in the Late Miocene interrupted the postrift subsidence, resulting in an extensive thrust-fold belt in the eastern part of the area. Subsequent erosion removed about 900 m of sediments. The regional subsidence has dominated the area since the Late Miocene.     

Geological evolution,regional perspectives and hydrocarbon potential of the northwest Phu Khanh Basin,offshore Central Vietnam

Seismic stratigraphic and structural analyses of the northwest Phu Khanh Basin, offshore Central Vietnam, based on 2-D seismic data, indicate that the initial rifting began during the latest Cretaceous? or Palaeogene controlled by left-lateral transtension along the East Vietnam Boundary Fault Zone (EVBFZ) and northwest–southeast directed extension east of the EVBFZ. Rifting stopped due to transpression during middle Oligocene times but resumed by left-lateral transtension during the Late Oligocene. Thick sequences of lacustrine and alluvial sediments were deposited during the Palaeogene rift periods. The Late Oligocene rifting ended due to inversion, triggered by right-lateral wrenching near the Palaeogene–Neogene boundary. Following the onset of this inversion regional uplift and volcanism took place in the southern half of the study area and contemporaneous subsidence and transgression took place farther north, leading to widespread carbonate deposition. As the right-lateral wrenching decreased during the early Neogene, thermal subsidence and siliciclastic sedimentation became dominant, resulting in the buildup and southward propagation of the shelf slope. Sediment accumulation and subsidence rates increased after the Middle Miocene times due to eastward tilting of Central Vietnam and the adjacent offshore area.     

Response of Cenozoic turbidite system to tectonic activity and sea-level change off the Zambezi Delta

Submarine fans and turbidite systems are important and sensitive features located offshore from river deltas that archive tectonic events, regional climate, sea level variations and erosional process. Very little is known about the sedimentary structure of the 1800 km long and 400 km wide Mozambique Fan, which is fed by the Zambezi and spreads out into the Mozambique Channel. New multichannel seismic profiles in the Mozambique Basin reveal multiple feeder systems of the upper fan that have been active concurrently or consecutively since Late Cretaceous. We identify two buried, ancient turbidite systems off Mozambique in addition to the previously known Zambezi-Channel system and another hypothesized active system. The oldest part of the upper fan, located north of the present-day mouth of the Zambezi, was active from Late Cretaceous to Eocene times. Regional uplift caused an increased sediment flux that continued until Eocene times, allowing the fan to migrate southwards under the influence of bottom currents. Following the mid-Oligocene marine regression, the Beira High Channel-levee complex fed the Mozambique Fan from the southwest until Miocene times, reworking sediments from the shelf and continental slope into the distal abyssal fan. Since the Miocene, sediments have bypassed the shelf and upper fan region through the Zambezi Valley system directly into the Zambezi Channel. The morphology of the turbidite system off Mozambique is strongly linked to onshore tectonic events and the variations in sea level and sediment flux.     

东海新生代沉积盆地的类型和成盆期

东海新生代沉积厚度最大可达10km。分为三个发展时期。第一阶段从晚白垩世至中始新世,由于中国大陆向东濡散和掀斜断块作用,在大陆边缘由陆缘裂谷盆地转化为浅海沉积盆地。第二阶段从晚始新世至中中新世,由于喜马拉雅陆缘造山带的形成和中国大陆边缘的隆升联合作用结果,在大陆边缘由环绕大陆分布的带状地堑转化为前陆盆地。第三阶段从晚中新世至第四纪,由于太平洋板块向西俯冲,形成弧后断陷及弧前坳陷。从横向上看,不同性质和时代的沉积,由西向东,由老到新,依次排列。从盆地性质上看,由老到新,张性盆地和压性盆地交替形成,叠置在一起。因此不同时代和性质的盆地,具有不同的石油地质条件和油气成藏规律。     

Relative sea-level change in western New Guinea recorded by regional biostratigraphic data

We present new biostratigraphic analyses of approximately 200 outcrop samples and review biostratigraphic data from 136 public domain exploration wells across western New Guinea. Biostratigraphic ages and palaeodepositional environments were interpreted from occurrences of planktonic and larger benthic foraminifera, together with other fossils and environmental indicators where possible. These data were compared with existing geological maps and exploration well data to reconstruct the palaeogeography of western New Guinea from the Carboniferous to present day. In addition, we used the known bathyal preferences of fossils to generate a regional sea-level curve and compared this with global records of sea-level change over the same period. Our analyses of the biostratigraphic data identified two major transgressive-regressive cycles in regional relative sea-level, with the highest sea levels recorded during the Late Cretaceous and Late Miocene and terrestrial deposition prevalent across much of western New Guinea during the Late Paleozoic and Early Mesozoic. An increase in the abundance of carinate planktonic foraminifera indicates a subsequent phase of relative sea-level rise during a regional transgressive event between the Late Jurassic and Late Cretaceous. However, sea-levels dropped once more during a regressive event between the Late Cretaceous and the Paleogene. This resulted in widespread shallow water carbonate platform development in the Middle to Late Eocene. A minor transgressive event occurred during the Oligocene, but this ceased in the Early Miocene, likely due to the collision of the Australian continent with intra-Pacific island arcs. This Miocene collision event resulted in widespread uplift that is marked by a regional unconformity. Carbonate deposition continued in platforms that developed in shallow marine settings until these were drowned during another transgressive event in the Middle Miocene. This transgression reached its peak in the Late Miocene and was followed by a further regression culminating in the present day topographic expression of western New Guinea.     

Reservoir potential of Late Cretaceous terrestrial to shallow marine sandstones,Taranaki Basin,New Zealand

Late Cretaceous coals and coaly source rocks are the main source of hydrocarbons in the Taranaki Basin, yet to date there have not been any hydrocarbon discoveries within Cretaceous strata, and sandstone distribution and reservoir quality for this interval have been poorly understood. The Late Cretaceous sediments were deposited in several sub-basins across Taranaki, with their distribution largely determined by sediment supply, subsidence, and sea level change. In this study, we describe potential reservoir facies in well penetrations of Cretaceous strata in Taranaki, as well as from outcrop in northwest Nelson, on the southern edge of the basin.     

Superposed deformation straddling the continental-oceanic transition in deep-water Angola

The Angolan margin is the type area for raft tectonics. New seismic data reveal the contractional buffer for this thin-skinned extension. A 200-km-long composite section from the Lower Congo Basin and Kwanza Basin illustrates a complex history of superposed deformation caused by: (1) progradation of the margin; and (2) episodic Tertiary epeirogenic uplift. Late Cretaceous tectonics was driven by a gentle slope created by thermal subsidence; extensional rafting took place updip, contractional thrusting and buckling downdip; some distal folds were possibly unroofed to form massive salt walls. Oligocene deformation was triggered by gentle kinking of the Atlantic Hinge Zone as the shelf and coastal plain rose by 2 or 3 km; relative uplift stripped Paleogene cover off the shelf, provided space for Miocene progradation, and steepened the continental slope, triggering more extension and buckling. In the Neogene, a subsalt half graben was inverted or reactivated, creating keystone faults that may have controlled the Congo Canyon; a thrust duplex of seaward-displaced salt jacked up the former abyssal plain, creating a plateau of salt 3–4 km thick on the present lower slope. The Angola Escarpment may be the toe of the Angola thrust nappe, in which a largely Cretaceous roof of gently buckled strata, was transported seawards above the thickened salt by up to 20 km.     

Neogene geological history of the Tohoku Island Arc system

The Pacific-type orogeny in the Tohoku Island Arc is discussed using marine geological and geophysical data from both Pacific and Japan Sea along the Tohoku region. The Tohoku Arc is divided into three belts; inner volcanic and sedimentary belt, intermediate uplifted belt and outer sedimentary trench belt. Thick Neogene sediments which are distinguished in several layers by continuous seismic reflection profiling occur on both sides of the intermediate belt. The dominant structural trend of the Neogene layers is approximately parallel to the coast line and to the axis of the Japan Trench and has a extension of approximately 100 km in each unit on the Pacific side. The trench slope break is an uplifted zone of Neogene layers. The structural trend of the upper continental slope and outer shelf is relative uplift of the landward side. Tilted block movement toward the west is the dominant structural trend on the Japan Sea side. Structural trends which can be seen in both the inner and outer belts may suggest horizontal compressional stress of east to west. Orogenesis and tectogenesis in the Tohoku Arc has been active since early Miocene or latest Oligocene. It may be implied that the Japan Trench was not present during Late Cretaceous to Paleogene, as is suggested by the volcanism of the Tohoku Arc. The basic framework of the present structure was formed during late Miocene to early Pliocene in both the inner and outer belts. Structural movements were reactivated during late Pleistocene.     

Controls on turbidite sand deposition during gravity-driven extension of a passive margin: examples from Miocene sediments in Block 4, Angola

In recent years, exploration of the Lower Congo Basin in Angola has focused on the Neogene turbidite sand play of the Malembo Formation. Gravity tectonics has played an important role during deposition of the Malembo Formation and has imparted a well-documented structural style to the post-rift sediments. An oceanward transition from thin-skinned extension through mobile salt and eventually to thin-skinned compressional structures characterises the post-rift sediments. There has been little discussion, however, regarding the influence of these structures on the deposition of the Malembo Formation turbidite sands. Block 4 lies at the southern margin of the Lower Congo Basin and is dominated by the thin-skinned extensional structural style. Using a multidisciplinary approach we trace the post-rift structural and stratigraphic evolution of this block to study the structural controls on Neogene turbidite sand deposition.In the Lower Congo Basin the transition from terrestrial rift basin to fully marine passive margin is recorded by late Aptian evaporites of the Loeme Formation. Extension of the overlying post-rift sequences has occurred where the Loeme Formation has been utilised as a detachment surface for extensional faults. Since the late Cretaceous, the passive margin sediments have moved down-slope on the Loeme detachment. This history of gravity-driven extension is recorded in the post-rift sediments of Block 4. Extension commenced in the Albian in the east of the block and migrated westwards with time. In the west, the extension occurred mainly in the Miocene and generated allochthonous fault blocks or “rafts”, separated by deep grabens. The Miocene extension occurred in two main phases with contrasting slip vectors; in the early Miocene the extension vector was to the west, switching to southwest-directed extension in the late Miocene. Early Miocene faults and half-grabens trend north–south whereas late Miocene structures trend northwest–southeast. The contrast in slip vectors between these two phases emphasises the differences in driving mechanisms: the early Miocene faulting was driven by basinward tilting of the passive margin, but gravity loading due to sedimentary progradation is considered the main driver for the late Miocene extension. The geological evolution of the late Miocene grabens is consistent with southwest-directed extension due to southwest progradation of the Congo fan.High-resolution biostratigraphic data identifies the turbidite sands in Block 4 as early Miocene (17.5–15.5 Ma) and late Miocene (10.5–5.5 Ma) in age. Deposition of these sands occurred during the two main phases of gravity-driven extension. Conditions of low sedimentation rates relative to high fault displacement rates were prevalent in the early Miocene. Seafloor depressions were generated in the hangingwalls of the main extensional faults, ultimately leading to capture of the turbidity currents. Lower Miocene turbidite sand bodies therefore trend north–south, parallel to the active faults. Cross-faults and relay ramps created local topographic highs capable of deflecting turbidite flows within the half grabens. Flow-stripping of turbidity currents across these features caused preferential deposition of sands across, and adjacent to, the highs. Turbidite sands deposited in the early part of the late Miocene were influenced by both the old north–south fault trends and by the new northwest–southeast fault trends. By latest Miocene times turbidite channels crosscut the active northwest–southeast-trending faults. These latest Miocene faults had limited potential to capture turbidity currents because the associated hangingwall grabens were rapidly filled as pro-delta sediments of the Congo fan prograded across the area from the northeast.     

Different expressions of rifting on the South China Sea margins

Rifting of continental margins is generally diachronous along the zones where continents break due to various factors including the boundary conditions which trigger the extensional forces, but also the internal physical boundaries which are inherent to the composition and thus the geological history of the continental margin. Being opened quite recently in the Tertiary in a scissor-shape manner, the South China Sea (SCS) offers an image of the rifting structures which varies along strike the basin margins. The SCS has a long history of extension, which dates back from the Late Cretaceous, and allows us to observe an early stretching on the northern margin onshore and offshore South China, with large low angle faults which detach the Mesozoic sediments either over Triassic to Early Cretaceous granites, or along the short limbs of broad folds affecting Palaeozoic to Early Cretaceous series. These early faults create narrow troughs filled with coarse polygenic conglomerate grading upward to coarse sandstone. Because these low-angle faults reactivate older trends, they vary in geometry according to the direction of the folds or the granite boundaries. A later set of faults, characterized by generally E–W low and high angle normal faults was dominant during the Eocene. Associated half-graben basement deepened as the basins were filling with continental or very shallow marine sediments. This subsequent direction is well expressed both in the north and the SW of the South China Sea and often reactivated earlier detachments. At places, the intersection of these two fault sets resulting in extreme stretching with crustal boudinage and mantle exhumation such as in the Phu Khanh Basin East of the Vietnam fault. A third direction of faults, which rarely reactivates the detachments is NE–SW and well developed near the oceanic crust in the southern and southwestern part of the basin. This direction which intersects the previous ones was active although sea floor spreading was largely developed in the northern part, and ended by the Late Miocene after the onset of the regional Mid Miocene unconformity known as MMU and dated around 15.5 Ma. Latest Miocene is marked by a regional basement drop and localized normal faults on the shelf closer to the coast. The SE margin of the South China Sea does not show the extensional features as well as the Northern margin. Detachments are common in the Dangerous Grounds and Reed Bank area and may occasionally lead to mantle exhumation. The sedimentary environment on the extended crust remained shallow all along the rifting and a large part of the spreading until the Late Miocene, when it suddenly deepened. This period also corresponds to the cessation of the shortening of the NW Borneo wedge in Palawan, Sabah, and Sarawak. We correlate the variation of margin structure and composition of the margin; mainly the occurrence of granitic batholiths and Mesozoic broad folds, with the location of the detachments and major normal faults which condition the style of rifting, the crustal boudinage and therefore the crustal thickness.     

Composition and conditions for formation of neogene deposits at the Primorye continental slope in the area of Vladimir Bay in the Sea of Japan

The petrographic and micropaleontological studies of the rocks in the sedimentary cover of the Primorye continental slope in the area of Vladimir Bay in the Sea of Japan made it possible to establish that the sedimentary cover is represented in this area by two different facial complexes of Late Miocene rocks. The first facial complex consists of terrigenous rocks (siltstones, sandstones, and conglomerates) that were accumulated under relatively shallow-water conditions of the shelf and the uppermost part of the continental slope. The second one is formed by diatomaceous-clayey rocks under more deep-water conditions, mainly in the upper part of the continental slope. The carbonate nodules that are widely distributed among the deposits of the first complex but are also recorded in the second one were formed as a result of diagenetic processes in the terrigenous or silicious-terrigenous sediments that had been formed. With respect to their age, the Late Miocene deposits are characterized by a full succession of diatomaceous zones over 10.0–5.5 mln yr. The sediments of the first facial complex accumulated during the first third of the Late Miocene (10.0–8.5 mln yr), while those of the second began to accumulate somewhat later, but their accumulation continued until the late Miocene (9.2–5.5 mln yr).     

Middle to Late Cenozoic tectonic events in south and central Palawan (Philippines) and their implications to the evolution of the south-eastern margin of South China Sea: Evidence from onshore structural and offshore seismic data

Using recently gathered onland structural and 2D/3D offshore seismic data in south and central Palawan (Philippines), this paper presents a new perspective in unraveling the Cenozoic tectonic history of the southeastern margin of the South China Sea. South and central Palawan are dominated by Mesozoic ophiolites (Palawan Ophiolite), distinct from the primarily continental composition of the north. These ophiolites are emplaced over syn-rift Eocene turbidites (Panas Formation) along thrust structures best preserved in the ophiolite–turbidite contact as well as within the ophiolites. Thrusting is sealed by Early Miocene (∼20 Ma) sediments of the Pagasa Formation (Isugod Formation onland), constraining the younger limit of ophiolite emplacement at end Late Oligocene (∼23 Ma). The onset of ophiolite emplacement at end Eocene is constrained by thrust-related metamorphism of the Eocene turbidites, and post-emplacement underthrusting of Late Oligocene – Early Miocene Nido Limestone. This carbonate underthrusting at end Early Miocene (∼16 Ma) is marked by the deformation of a seismic unit corresponding to the earliest members of the Early – Middle Miocene Pagasa Formation. Within this formation, a tectonic wedge was built within Middle Miocene (from ∼16 Ma to ∼12 Ma), forming a thrust-fold belt called the Pagasa Wedge. Wedge deformation is truncated by the regionally-observed Middle Miocene Unconformity (MMU ∼12 Ma). A localized, post-kinematic extension affects thrust-fold structures, the MMU, and Late Miocene to Early Pliocene carbonates (e.g. Tabon Limestone). This structural set-up suggests a continuous convergent regime affecting the southeastern margin of the South China Sea between end Eocene to end Middle Miocene. The ensuing structures including juxtaposed carbonates, turbidites and shallow marine clastics within thrust-fold belts have become ideal environments for hydrocarbon generation and accumulation. Best developed in the Northwest Borneo Trough area, the intensity of thrust-fold deformation decreases towards the northeast into offshore southwest Palawan.     

Sequence stratigraphic modelling and reservoir architecture of the shallow marine successions of Baram field,West Baram Delta,offshore Sarawak,East Malaysia

The Baram Delta Province is located in the northern part of Sarawak (West Baram Delta) and extends north-eastward into Brunei and further into the south-western part of Sabah (East Baram Delta). The delta is a Neogene basin which developed over an accretionary wedge implying Cretaceous to Eocene sediments during the Late Eocene to Late Miocene times (Tongkul, 1991; Hutchison et al., 2000; Morley et al., 2003; Sapin et al., 2011).Facies and well log analyses were carried out on core and well data for the Late Miocene successions of Baram field, a medium-sized oilfield located in the north-eastern flank of the Baram Delta Oil Province, offshore Sarawak. A numerical model of sea-level fluctuations and progradational basin-fill was generated using the Clastic Modeling Program (Hardy and Waltham, 1992a and 1992b; Waltham, 1992) software to evaluate the possible controls of sea-level changes in the development of the siliciclastic successions and their bounding surfaces. This model was based on four lines of evidence, namely core data, fieldwide wireline logs correlation, seismic sections and average thickness variations across the field.Cored intervals of the Upper Cycle V (Late Miocene) display reservoir successions dominated by thick swaley cross-stratified (SCS) sandstones, thin hummocky cross-stratified sandstones and other shallow marine, wave and storm-dominated facies, interbedded with laminated shelfal mudstones. The vertical facies organisation suggests deposition during shoreface progradation associated with a fall of relative sea level.Analysis and correlation of well logs reveal stacking patterns comprising three scales of depositional cyclicity: the parasequences (∼10–∼30 m thick), the parasequence sets (∼45–∼130 m thick) and the major cycles (∼600–800 m thick).Field-wide, dip-oriented seismic sections show very well-developed horizontal to slightly upward convex layers traceable over great distances, which suggests a ramp-type margin, in which the basin floor dipped gradually seaward and lacked a distinct shelf-slope margin.The evidences gathered demonstrate that the deposition and build-up stratigraphy of the Late Miocene sedimentary successions could have been strongly controlled by superimposed short-term, medium-term and long-term sea-level changes.The simulated sea level and sedimentary basin-fill model, generated by the Clastic Modelling Program, match to the well log correlation. This model illustrates that high frequency sea-level fluctuations enable sands to be distributed over large areas within a shallow, low gradient shelf. Our study shows that integrated studies incorporating cores, well logs, seismic sections and simulated models can be employed as important tools for correlation and reservoir modelling.     

台西南盆地的构造演化与油气藏组合分析

本文根据台西南盆地的地质、地球物理资料，对台西南盆地的地壳结构、基底特征、沉积厚度、断裂构造等基本地质构造特征＾［１］作了研究，探讨了台西南盆地的构造发展演化及及油气藏组合。认为该盆地的构造演化为幕式拉张。幕式拉张可分为三大张裂幕，相应的热沉降作用使盆地在不同的张裂幕时期发展为断陷，裂陷，裂拗－拗陷。它们分别与板块作用下的区域构造运动阶段相对应，说明区域构造运动不但控制了盆地的发展演化，同时也制约     

Sedimentation settings and evolution history of the Kuril Basin (Sea of Okhotsk) in the Cenozoic

A study of the rocks from the Cenozoic sedimentary cover of the Kuril Basin slopes revealed two sedimentation stages in this area: the Late Oligocene-Early Miocene and Late Miocene-Pleistocene, which are separated by erosion in the Middle Miocene. They are characterized by dominant siliceous and terrigenous sediments, respectively. The former largely accumulated in neritic settings, while the latter were deposited in the bathyal zone under a strong influence of explosive volcanism. The change in the sedimentation regime probably occurred in the Middle-Late Miocene during the formation of the slopes of the present-day Kuril Basin. The rocks constituting crustal blocks with a granite-metamorphic layer served as a source of terrigenous material for the Cenozoic sedimentary cover, which indicates the sialic nature of the underlying basement.     

Extensional fault evolution within the Exmouth Sub-basin,North West Shelf,Australia

Structural analysis of the Indian Merge 3D seismic survey identified three populations of normal faults within the Exmouth Sub-basin of the North West Shelf volcanic margin of Australia. They comprise (1) latest-Triassic to Middle Jurassic N-NNE-trending normal faults (Fault Population I); (2) Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous NE-trending normal faults (Fault Population II); and (3) latest-Triassic to Early Cretaceous N-NNE faults (Fault Population III). Quantitative evaluation of >100 faults demonstrates that fault displacement occurred during two time periods (210–163 and 145–138 Ma) separated by ∼20 Myr of tectonic quiescence. Latest Jurassic to Early Cretaceous (145–138 Ma) evolution comprises magmatic addition and contemporaneous domal uplift ∼70 km wide characterised by ≥ 900 m of denudation. The areally restricted subcircular uplift centred on the southern edge of the extended continental promontory of the southern Exmouth Sub-basin supports latest Jurassic mantle plume upwelling that initiated progradation of the Barrow Delta. This polyphase and bimodal structural evolution impacts current hydrocarbon exploration rationale by defining the nature of latest Jurassic to Early Cretaceous fault nucleation and reactivation within the southern Exmouth Sub-basin.     

Salt-controlled slumping on the Mediterranean slope of central Israel

The highly complex morphology of the continental slope of central Israel is the expression of deep-seated rotational block slumping. The overburden of 1.0–1.5 km thick Pliocene-Quaternary sediments that accumulated over 200 m thick evaporites deposited under the deeper portion of the present-day continental slope and in Late Miocene erosion channels, caused the evaporites to flow downslope. This flowage was presumably caused by excessive pore pressures generated by the Pliocene-Quaternary sedimentary overburden in confined layers of clastics embedded within the impervious evaporites.     

Evolution of the Grenada and Tobago basins and implications for arc migration

The tectonic mechanisms controlling how volcanic arcs migrate through space and geologic time within dynamic subduction environments is a fundamental tectonic process that remains poorly understood. This paper presents an integrated stratigraphic and tectonic evolution of Late Cretaceous to Recent volcanic arcs and associated basins in the southeastern Caribbean Sea using seismic reflection data, wide-angle seismic refraction data, well data, and onland geologic data. We propose a new tectonic model for the opening of the Grenada and Tobago basins and the 50-250-km eastward jump of arc volcanism from the Late Cretaceous Aves Ridge to the Miocene to Recent Lesser Antilles arc in the southeast Caribbean based on the mapping of three seismic megasequences. The striking similarity of the half-graben structure of the Grenada and Tobago basins that flank the Lesser Antilles arc, their similar smooth basement character, their similar deep-marine seismic facies, and their similar Paleogene sediment thickness mapped on a regional grid of seismic data suggest that the two basins formed as a single, saucer-shaped, oceanic crust Paleogene forearc basin adjacent to the now dormant Aves Ridge. This single forearc basin continued to extend and widen through flexural subsidence during the early to middle Eocene probably because of slow rollback of the subducting Atlantic oceanic slab. Rollback may have been accelerated by oblique collision of the southern Aves Ridge and southern Lesser Antilles arc with the South American continent. Uplift and growth of the southern Lesser Antilles arc divided the Grenada and Tobago basins by early to middle Miocene time. Inversion of normal faults and uplift effects along both edges of the Lesser Antilles arc are most pronounced in its southern zone of arc collision with the South American continent. The late Miocene to Recent depositional histories of the Grenada and Tobago basins are distinct because of isolation of the Grenada basin by growth and uplift of the Neogene Lesser Antilles volcanic ridge.     

Determination of sediment volumes, accumulation rates and turbidite emplacement frequencies on the Madeira Abyssal Plain (NE Atlantic): a correlation between seismic and borehole data

The sedimentary infill history of the Madeira Abyssal Plain (MAP) is established from correlation of ODP Leg 157 drillsites (Sites 950–952) with an almost regular grid of 7000 km of intermediate-resolution seismic reflection profiles covering the central part of the abyssal plain. The most conspicuous seismic reflectors bounding the seismostratigraphic units have been identified and mapped. Correlation between seismic and borehole data using synthetic seismograms allows the lithological attribution and dating of the reflectors and seismostratigraphic units. Lateral mapping and correlation of seismic units also allows both the volumes and rates of accumulation of sediments within each seismostratigraphic unit and equivalent time periods of deposition to be determined. These calculations have been corrected for the effect of compaction, calculated at around 40% at the base of the drillholes. Three main turbidite types have been identified at the drillsites and their emplacement frequency has been calculated for each site and time period. Our results show that Cretaceous oceanic crust was draped with red pelagic clays, and the fracture-zone valleys were completely infilled and levelled in a geologically rather short time, probably during the latest Oligocene and Early Miocene, by organic-rich turbidites derived from the NW African continental margin. At 16 Ma, the topography was levelled enough to allow large turbidity current flows to cover the entire plain. During the Middle and Late Miocene (16–5.9 Ma), organic-rich turbidites were emplaced on the abyssal plain at a low rate of accumulation (12 m/my). In the uppermost Miocene–Early Pliocene (5.9–3.6 Ma), turbidite emplacement increased markedly in both frequency and accumulation rate (e.g., 26 m/my for organic-rich turbidites). During this time, period emplacement of volcanic-rich turbidites also increased in volume and frequency, a trend that continued into the Pliocene. Increased volcanic-rich turbidite emplacement correlates well with increased volcanic activity on the Canary Islands, and increased organic-rich turbidite emplacement may correlate with periods of erosion on the NW African continental margin. These erosional periods may be related to global cooling and falling sea level, intensification of bottom-water currents, and enhanced upwelling on the margin.