30 Million Year Record of the Evolution of a Continental Rift: The Early Mesozoic Newark Basin

该项目涉及一项大陆科学钻探计划，以获得一个典型的、可从后勤上获得的大陆裂谷--纽瓦克盆地--演化的完整、详细的记录。从一个多世纪的地表地质研究中获得的大量地质信息有力地表明，存在一个与裂谷有关的完整序列。然而，由于非常不连续的暴露和横向相变化，数据集的内在局限性阻碍了与裂谷相关过程的全面和可测试模型的发展。拟议的钻探包括5个浅层(每个约1公里)钻孔，旨在回收约5,000米的晚三叠世时代沉积物和少量火成岩。结合最近从该剖面较年轻(侏罗纪)部分获得的岩心，这些岩心的年龄约为30米。从一开始就记录了裂痕的历史。沉积物的物理地层学，特别是有记录的气候成因的沉积旋回，结合生物地层学、磁性地层学和化学地层学控制，预计将产生非常高分辨率的年代地层学，这将作为早中生代纽瓦克超群的标准参考剖面，从而成为区域(和全球)对比的框架，对于开发现实的大陆裂谷模型至关重要。

This project involves a continental scientific drilling program to obtain a complete, detailed record of the evolution of a classical and logistically accessible continental rift, the early Mesozoic Newark basin. A wealth of geological information available from over a century of study of the surface geology strongly indicates that a complete rift-related sequence is present. However, intrinsic limitations in the data set, posed by very discontinuous exposure combined with lateral facies variations, hampers the development of comprehensive and testable models of rift-related processes. The proposed drilling consists of 5 shallow (about 1 km each) drill holes designed to recover approximately 5,000 m section of Late Triassic age sediments and minor igneous rocks. Combined with recently available cores from the younger (Jurassic) part of the section, these represent about 30 M. yr. of the history of the rift from its inception. The physical stratigraphy of the sediments and especially the documented sedimentary cycles of climatic origin, combined with biostratigraphic, magnetostratigraphic, and chemostratigraphic control, are expected to yield a very high resolution chronostratigraphy that will serve as a standard reference section for the Early Mesozoic Newark Supergroup and thus a framework for regional (and global) correlations essential to the development of realistic models of continental rifting.