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

该项目涉及大陆科学钻探 程序以获得完整的，详细的演变记录， 一个经典的和后勤上可访问的大陆裂谷， 纽瓦克盆地 丰富的地质信息 经过世纪的地表地质学研究 强烈表明，一个完整的裂谷相关序列是 礼物 然而，数据集的内在局限性， 通过非常不连续的暴露结合侧向相 变化，阻碍了全面和可测试的发展 裂谷相关过程的模型。 拟议钻探包括 5个浅钻孔（每个约1公里）， 大约5,000米长的晚三叠世沉积物， 小火成岩 结合最近可用的内核， 较年轻（侏罗纪）的部分，这些代表了大约 30米年人工老化时空裂缝的历史 的 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， 生物地层、磁性地层和化学地层 控制，预计将产生非常高的分辨率 年代地层学将作为标准参考 早中生代纽瓦克超群的剖面， 区域（和全球）相互关系的框架， 发展大陆裂谷的现实模型。

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.