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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database
AAPG Bulletin
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Deep well information throughout the Gulf of Mexico coastal plain has indicated that the Gulf margins can be divided into two distinct provinces, the subsided southeastern section which is underlain by carbonate rocks and the northwestern section that is underlain mainly by terrigenous clastic rocks. In the latter area there is complicated surface and subsurface structure controlled mainly by the influence of upward salt migration. Recent geophysical studies in the offshore areas indicate that DeSoto Canyon is the transition zone between the terrigenous clastic and carbonate provinces in the northern Gulf and that the Campeche Canyon plays a similar role in the southwestern part of the basin. Most salt diapirs in the region lie west of a line connecting the two canyons, b t recent work suggests the presence of some diapiric structures east of the line.
The geophysical data from the DeSoto Canyon indicate that erosion has played an important part in its development. Two mechanisms for the formation of the canyon are suggested: (1) the loop current of the eastern Gulf of Mexico and associated circulation in the northeastern Gulf have sufficient velocity along the bottom during specific periods of time to effect a scouring action and/or keep sediments in suspension; and (2) erosion by turbidity flows takes place during periods of low sea-level stands associated with glacial stages. The fact that the DeSoto Canyon extends across parts of two distinct geologic provinces, the northeast Florida platform and the Mississippi cone, adds credence to an hypothesis involving erosional rather than tectonic processes.
Although there are insufficient data available to determine the origin of the Campeche Canyon, it is suggested that, unlike the DeSoto Canyon, its topographic expression probably is more the result of adjacent salt tectonics than of erosion. Some workers suggested that an alignment from the DeSoto Canyon to Campeche Canyon may represent a fracture zone across the Gulf basin. The hypothesis that this alignment forms the southeastern boundary of the Gulf of Mexico salt province is contradicted by the presence of diapirs in northwestern Matanzas Province, Cuba, and by the discovery of some possible diapiric structures in the Florida Straits and Yucatan Channel.
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