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Oligocene eustasy from two-dimensional sequence stratigraphic backstripping

¹ Department of Geosciences, Western Michigan University, 1187 Rood Hall, Kalamazoo, Michigan 49008-5150, USA
² Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, New York 10964-8000, USA

Estimates of the magnitudes of changes in third-order (0.5–2 m.y.) eustasy were obtained for Oligocene sequences defined by a suite of largely onshore boreholes of the New Jersey coastal plain. Benthic foraminiferal biofacies and multiple age constraints in a sequence stratigraphic framework formed the database for this study. The geometry of the margin through time was determined using two-dimensional backstripping. The depth ranges of benthic foraminiferal biofacies were determined from a combination of standard factor analysis techniques and the backstripped geometries. Benthic foraminiferal biofacies were then used to determine the depths of the Oligocene margin profiles obtained from backstripping. The water depths of 16 of these horizons were confirmed by independent benthic biofacies determinations from at least two wells. This internal consistency indicates that the data and the two-dimensional backstripping approach were robust. Where benthic biofacies require a vertical shift of the horizons generated by two-dimensional backstripping, eustatic changes were required and were readily calculated.

Results indicate a major eustatic fall from the end of the Eocene to the first record of Oligocene deposition. Subsequent long-term shoaling of sea level through the Oligocene was 30 m in 10 m.y. Superimposed on this long-term trend were higher frequency (third-order) variations in eustasy with amplitudes of 40 m or less.

Key Words: basin analysis • eustasy • New Jersey • Oligocene • sequence stratigraphy

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