Stratigraphy of the Tertiary sediments in a 945-foot-deep corehole near Mays Landing in the southeastern New Jersey coastal plain

Abstract

The section from the early Eocene (Zone NP 12) through the early Oligocene (Zone NP 21) is nearly complete at this locality; in fact, it is one of the most complete sections through this part of the geologic column found anywhere to date in the U.S. Atlantic Coastal Plain. The presence of upper Eocene and lower Oligoeene sediments in the New Jersey Coastal Plain was heretofore unknown. Thus, informal names are:used for some units. All the Paleogene formations recovered in the core were deposited in a shelf environment and are cyclic in character. Each reflects deeper 'water deposition in its lower part and contains shallower water sediments in its upper part. All the formations are separated by unconformities. The Kirkwood Formation, which overlies the ACGS Beta unit unconformably, is the thickest unit in the hole. This unit ranges in age from early Miocene (early Burdigalian) to perhaps early middle Miocene (Langhian). The late Miocene (Tortonian.) age proposed for-the Kirkwood imthe southern New Jersey Coastal Plain by some was not substantiated in this hole or in the array of holes surrounding it. Diatoms obtained irom the upper Kirkwood indicate that this part of the unit is correlative with the lower Calvert Formation of the Chesapeake Group in Virginia,: Delaware, and Maryland. The lower part of the Kirkwood is older than any unit known from the Chesapeake Group to the south; suggesting that what is now New Jersey was the earliest'area of downwarping in the northern U.S. Atlantic Coastal Plain during Mioeene time. The Kirkwood is largely a marine deltaic unit consisting of interbedded shallow shelf and prodelta deposits.

Onshore record of Hudson River drainage to the continental shelf from the late Miocene through the late Wisconsinan deglaciation, USA: synthesis and revision

“…These are quartz-quartzite-chert fluvial gravels and quartz-feldspar-chert sands that overlie the Cohansey Formation, a marginal-marine quartz sand of late middle Miocene age. The age of the Cohansey is based on pollen (Owens et al 1988) and on a Sr stable isotope age of 12 Myr for the youngest beds of the underlying Kirkwood Formation (Sugarman et al 1993). The Beacon Hill and Bridgeton are preserved in erosional remnants of broad fluvial plains, less than 12 m thick, capping the highest elevations in the Coastal Plain.…”

Cenozoic global sea level, sequences, and the New Jersey Transect: Results From coastal plain and continental slope drilling

“…Drilling on the continental slope (Leg 150) has proven to be very successful in this regard; quite surprisingly, onshore drilling (Leg 150X) in extreme updip settings has been remarkably successful as well owing to technological advances in dating (e.g., Sr-isotopic stratigraphy). In addition to recovering and dating Oligocene and younger sequences, onshore drilling at the ACGS#4 [Owens et al, 1988] (Figure 1), Island Beach, Atlantic City, and Cape May boreholes [Miller et al, , 1996a, recovered an excellent record of Eocene sequences. This older interval is particularly critical for evaluating mechanisms of eustatic change and the validity of sequence stratigraphy for global correlation.…”

“…The New Jersey margin (coastal plain, continental shelf, and continental slope; see Figure 1) is a classic passive continental margin that formed following Late Triassic-Early Jurassic rifting [Grow and Sheridan, 1988]. Postrift tectonics have been dominated by simple thermal subsidence and sediment loading (both Airy and flexural isostasy [Watts and Steckler, 1979;Reynolds et al, 1991] Previous onshore studies have been hampered by insufficient material for study: outcrops are deeply weathered, and virtually all previous rotary wells and boreholes were discontinuously sampled (the ACGS#4 borehole is a notable exception [Owens et al, 1988]). Continuous coring at Island Beach, Atlantic City, and Cape May addressed this problem by providing 4175 feet (1273 m) of core that allows identification and dating of Cenozoic sequences [Miller et al, , 1996a.…”

Screening tool to evaluate the vulnerability of down-gradient receptors to groundwater contaminants from uncapped landfills

“…The Cohansey Formation is an unconfined sand-and-gravel aquifer with discontinuous interbedded clays (Owens et al, 1988). The Kirkwood Formation is a fine to medium sand (Owens et al, 1988). Rhodehamel (1973) reported that the hydraulic conductivity of the Kirkwood-Cohansey aquifer system ranges from 90 to 250 ft/d, and values for specific locations were obtained from published regional groundwater flow models and the transmissivity ranges from 4000 to 8300 ft 2 /d.…”

“…Most of the PNR is underlain by the Kirkwood-Cohansey aquifer system, which underlies 3000 square miles of the New Jersey Coastal Plain (Watt, 2000). The Cohansey Formation is an unconfined sand-and-gravel aquifer with discontinuous interbedded clays (Owens et al, 1988). The Kirkwood Formation is a fine to medium sand (Owens et al, 1988).…”