Reflection seismic data for petroleum exploration have improved resolution of the rift structure of the United States Atlantic margin. Previously conjectural features are not clearly seen and additional features have been recognized. Our best data are from the Long Island-George's Bank area. Generally, the geologic elements visible, looking landward, are: (1) a belt of block-faulted oceanic crust that merges into a wedge of synrift sediments, (2) a basement ridge 10-15 km wide with maximum relief of 1.5 km, at a depth generally below 9 km, under the East Coast Magnetic Anomaly (ECMA), (3) a very wide zone of rising basement, structurally bland except for a major hinge near the updip edge of the ECMA, (4) an updip zone of complicated rift-stage faults with basinward-dippin listric faults, which visibly sole at ~14 km, and common listric counter-regional faults, and (5) a major unconformity, the base of the drift sequence, with rift-stage structures extensively pene-planed. Graben fill is 2-stage and includes earlier highly rotated beds separated by an unconformity from mildly deformed sediments. Downdip, the major unconformity at the base of the drift sequence becomes a strong, continuous reflector that downlaps the landward edge of oceanic crust.

End_of_Article - Last_Page 271------------