Late Cenozoic architecture of the St. Pierre Slope

• Published in: Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences
• Main Authors: Piper, David JW, Macdonald, Adam WA, Ingram, Stephen, Williams, Graham L, McCall, Curtis
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Canadian Science Publishing 2005
• Subjects: Newfoundland; Hermine
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/e05-059; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/e05-059

The late Cenozoic seismic stratigraphy of the continental slope south of western Newfoundland is interpreted using new seismic reflection profiles. New Miocene–Pliocene biostratigraphic (palynology) age determinations on the Hermine E-94 well on the northwestern Grand Banks of Newfoundland are correlated to the study area. The Quaternary section of St. Pierre Slope is disrupted by numerous failure scarps and mass-transport deposits, but correlation from the mid- slope to the continental rise is achieved using major mass-transport deposits as markers. On the upper slope, stacked downslope-thinning wedges of acoustically incoherent sediment are interpreted as till deposits of mid- to late Pleistocene age. Sedi mentation rates in the youngest part of the succession are estimated from a 30 ka radiocarbon date 25 m below the horizon of the youngest till tongue, which is exposed on a 60 m deep failure surface. Extrapolation of sedimentation rates and comparison with dated sections on the J-Anomaly Ridge and Bermuda Rise provides a consistent interpreted age model for the till tongues that corresponds to marine isotope stages 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12.