Drowned and buried valleys on the southern New England continental shelf |
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| Authors: | Robert L McMaster ASAF Ashraf |
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| Institution: | Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, R.I. U.S.A. |
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| Abstract: | Bathymetry and seismic reflection profiling have revealed a sequence of seven post-Jurassic drowned or buried drainage systems on the southern New England shelf. The basement and younger stream patterns have a dominant southward trend with preferred drainage avenues from the mainland to the middle shelf indicated by superposed valley ground positions from unconformity to unconformity over time. Fluvial action under stable tectonic conditions is inferred by low valley height/width ratios with higher ratios related to ice modification of inner shelf pre-glacial river valleys.Fluvial processes responding to sea-level withdrawals have greatly influenced the shelf's later development. Periodically during post-Paleocene time, sediment from subaerial erosion has been transported to the shelf edge by streams. Deltaic deposition on a subsiding base has controlled outbuilding on the outer shelf where the frequent presence of overlying drainage networks is the result of numerous sea-level regressions. Since Eocene time, sediment has been channelled to the deep sea via Block Canyon and its progenitor.Locally structures created by erosion and glacial deposition have governed drainage direction. On the inner shelf, late Tertiary - early Pleistocene streams were diverted southeastward and southwestward by the magnitude of Long Island's Coastal Plain escarpment and by secondary cuestas between eastern Long Island and Block Island. The probable eastern reach of Dana's southern Sound River valley can be traced from northeastern Long Island across Block Island Sound. An early Woodfordian end moraine of the Wisconsin stage impounded melt waters in Block Island and Rhode Island Sounds. Where the moraine was breached near Block Island, fans were formed adjacent to the water gaps. In Rhode Island Sound the earlier and later Woodfordian end moraines deflected some mainland drainage toward the southwest. |
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