Middle and Upper Jurassic Depositional Environments at Outer Shelf and Slope of Baltimore Canyon Trough

Abstract

New CDP data acquired in the Baltimore Canyon Trough during project LASE made it possible to map a continuous Jurassic sedimentary sequence from the continental margin to the abyssal plain without interruption by basement structures. Intense carbonate sedimentation is inferred at the outer shelf during the Middle and Late Jurassic. Carbonate sedimentation probably started during the Middle Jurassic with a platform that prograded seaward with the development of ramps. By the Late Jurassic, a major reef complex had developed at the outer continental shelf. The onset of reef growth can be tentatively dated as 138 Ma by using the J1 reflector dated by the Deep Sea Drilling Project. A well-developed reef-talus deposit can be identified overlying the interface that generates th J1 reflector. A detailed analysis of semblance-derived interval velocities in the reef-talus sequence indicates a compressional velocity of 4.3-4.5 km/sec (14,100-14,800 ft/sec) for that interval, which was part of a major barrier reef along the United States eastern margin. After the reef formed, the deep oceanic basin was mostly starved from shelf-derived sediments until the reef died and was buried by clastic sediments. By correlation of our seismic data and COST well information, we infer that in the Baltimore Canyon Trough this reef had terminated by about the end of the Jurassic Period.