Neotectonism along the Atlantic passive continental margin: A review

Abstract

An extensive body of geologic data including the modern state of stress, historical seismicity, surface and subsurface stratigraphy, numerical models of crustal deformation, surficial geomorphic systems, and historical precise leveling and tidal gauge records constrain the style and rate of neotectonic deformation for the Appalachians and Atlantic passive continental margin. There are two major styles of neotectonism in the eastern United States. The northeastern United States is dominated by isostatic uplift and northward migration of peripheral bulge collapse in response to deglaciation. This locally rapid, but decreasing rate of deformation is superimposed upon slower, long-term deformation along the Atlantic margin. Most of the long-term, continental margin deformation is attributed to lithospheric flexuring in response to sediment loading in sedimentary basins (especially the Baltimore Canyon Trough and Carolina Trough), isostatic deformation in response to continental denudation and water loading of the shelf, and stress from far-field plate tectonic sources. Significant deformational features include an uplift anomaly near Cape Fear, N.C.; northward and southward tilting of the Coastal Plain into the Salisbury and Southeast Georgia Embayments respectively; seaward tilting of the Coastal Plain/Piedmont, and a complex pattern of postglacial uplift and later subsidence in the northeast. Estimates of vertical crustal velocities for similar locations vary over several orders of magnitude. Measurement interval bias and systematic leveling errors may account for some of the discrepancies. Evidence for periodic deformation in the eastern United States in substantial and it is possible that historic data indicate a period of accelerated deformation along the Atlantic continental margin.