--> Abstract: Neogene History of Deposition and Erosion in the De Soto Canyon Area, Northeastern Gulf Of Mexico, by M-P. Aubry and W. A. Berggren; #90987 (1993).
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AUBRY, MARIE-PIERRE, Laboratoire de Geologie du Quaternaire, CNRS-Luminy, Marseille, France; and WILLIAM A. BERGGREN, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA

ABSTRACT: Neogene History of Deposition and Erosion in the De Soto Canyon Area, Northeastern Gulf Of Mexico.

The De Soto Canyon area is of special interest in understanding the geological history of the west Florida Slope and Escarpment, because it separates areas of carbonate (to the South) and clay-sand (to the North) sedimentation and because it has been an area of intermittent deposition/erosion since the late Cretaceous. We interpret the Neogene history of the De Soto Canyon area based on an integrated calcareous nannofossil and planktonic foraminiferal study of 5 coreholes, the so-called Eureka Cores E66-73, E66-73A, E68-136, E68-139 and E68-151A. Neogene deposits vary greatly in thickness in these five holes, from 110 m in E68-151A to 330 m in E66-73, as a result of both stratigraphic gaps and variations in sedimentation rates between sites. Corehole E68-136 provides the most complete Neogene section although interrupted by five main stratigraphic Previous HitunconformitiesNext Hit with associated hiatuses ranging from 5 to less than 0.5 m.y. Seismic stratigraphic reflectors in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico are correlatable with the Previous HitunconformitiesNext Hit that we delineate in the De Soto Canyon area and secure their correlations through biostratigraphy alone, somewhat obscured by the long duration of their associated hiatuses. Two prominent surfaces are identified in the De Soto Canyon area, one in the lower middle Miocene (close to the NN5/NN6 zonal boundary), the other in the uppermost Pliocene (close to the NN18/NN19 zonal boundary). The Previous HitunconformitiesTop that we have identified are of regional extent and can be recognized in other areas of the Gulf of Mexico' (e.g., in Eureka Core E66-40D, on the carbonate ramp slope of central west Florida) and the Caribbean area (e.g., eastern Jamaica). The significance of these surfaces with regard to regional tectonic and glacio-eustasy is discussed.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90987©1993 AAPG Annual Convention, New Orleans, Louisiana, April 25-28, 1993.