Summary Information for Field Activity 1975-009-FA

Area of Operations: Baltimore Canyon Trough area, outer continental shelf, United States, North America, North Atlantic

Dates: June 01, 1975 to June 12, 1975

Chief scientist: Harley Knebel

Objectives: This 4th leg of the ATLANTIS II cruise had 3 primary objectives. The first objective was to obtain long vibracores to deduce characteristics and ages of sub-bottom sediments. These cores were in support of the acoustic survey completed in Baltimore Canyon Trough in May 1974. Second, short cores of sub-bottom sediments were to be collected. By measuring relative amounts of Pb-210 in these short cores, ages and accumulation rates of sediments for the past 100 years could be determined. Finally, stability of sediments at shelf edge was to be studied. Near-surface (apparently recent) fault displacement had been observed in high-resolution seismic records, suggesting that a mechanism existed for generation of slumps at the shelf break and on the upper continental slope. In addition, several special studies were pursued: sampling surface sediments to determine trace metal and hydrocarbon contents; sampling suspended sediments at water surface; emplacement of pipes into the sea floor by vibracore rig to use as reference points during submersible dives; outlining the areal extent of a sand-wave field near Wilmington Submarine Canyon; dropping sea-bed drifters at selected sites; and outlining the path of the ancestral Delaware valley across the continental shelf.

Type of Activity: Sampling; Seismic profiling; Vibracoring;Vibracoring

Information to be derived:

Summary: Cruise concentrated on vibracoring and bottom sampling off New Jersey. 3.5 kHz records: 1774 km; Minisparker records: 659 km; Sample stations: 42; Bottom sediment samples: 78 (Vibracores: 19; Hydrostatically damped gravity cores: 37; Smith-McIntyre grab samples: 15; Gravity cores: 7); Suspended sediment samples: 50; Sea-bed drifters released: 57; Reference pipes emplaced in sea floor: 3.

Contact: Nancy Soderberg (nsoderberg@usgs.gov)

InfoBank: uses the identifier A-4-75-MC. Visit this site for more information.

- Download 75009.kml to view this field activity in Google Earth

Platform Info:

ATLANTIS II

Publications resulting from these data

Chaytor, Jason D., ten Brink, Uri S., Solow, Andrew R., and Andrews, Brian D.,2009, Size distribution of submarine landslides along the U.S. Atlantic margin: Marine Geology, v. 264, no. 1-2: p. 16-27. (Also available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.margeo.2008.08.007)

Twichell, David C., Chaytor, Jason D., ten Brink, Uri S., and Buczkowski, Brian,2009, Morphology of late Quaternary submarine landslides along the U.S. Atlantic continental margin: Marine Geology, v. 264, no. 1-2: p. 4-15. (Also available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.margeo.2009.01.009)

ten Brink, U.S., Barkan, R., Andrews, B.D., and Chaytor, J.D.,2009, Size distributions and failure initiation of submarine and subaerial landslides: Earth and Planetary Science Letters, v. 287, no. 1-2: p. 31-42. (Also available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2009.07.031)

Geist, Eric L., Lynett, Patrick J., and Chaytor, Jason D.,2009, Hydrodynamic modeling of tsunamis from the Currituck landslide: Marine Geology, v. 264, no. 1-2: p. 41-52. (Also available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.margeo.2008.09.005)

Data Types and Locations:

Bathymetry

Navigation

Track Map (pdf file) Generalized drafted track map.

Track Map - Northern Area (pdf file) Northern portion of computer plotted track map.

Track Map - Southern Area (pdf file) Southern portion of computer plotted track map.

Zip archive of Navigation data

Logs

Chief Scientist's cruise report with personnel, equipment and data acquisition notes, cruise summary, and track maps.

Samples

Seismics