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Geology topics

J. Schlee

Publications and source records attributed to J. Schlee.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

Geophysical evidence for the intersection of the St Paul, Cape Palmas and Grand Cess fracture zones with the continental margin of Liberia, West Africa

PUBLISHED reconstructions of Gondwana continent 1 (Fig. l a ) show a gap in fit near the junction of the Americas and Africa. To study this critical area, the Unitedgeo I made geophysical measurements and collected rock samples across the continental margin of Liberia (USGS-IDOE cruise leg 5) in November 1971. Figure I b indicates the location of the 5,400 km of ship track on a generalised bathymetric map 2 . We shall discuss the data in detail elsewhere. Here we present the evidence for the existence of three fracture zones, two of which have not been reported previously, intersecting the continental margin at the north end of the South Atlantic, which remained closed probably until Cretaceous time. We suggest that Precambrian structures on the African continent controlled the location of these fracture zones. Figure Ic compares gravity and magnetic profiles and interpretations of the seismic profiles for three selected lines (27, 30 and 34) crossing the Grand Cess, Cape Palmas and St Paul fracture zones, respectively.

Nature

Rocks of eocene age on fippennies ledge, Gulf of Maine

In August 1965, a scallop dredge from R/V Albatross brought up many pieces of fossiliferous opaline chert or porcellanite of Eocene age from Fippennies Ledge , a bank 70 m deep in the central Gulf of Maine . Their presence in this area supports the idea that part of the Gulf is underlain by sedimentary rocks of Tertiary age . Occurrence in the porcellanite of two identifiable species of Bryozoa (ascophoran Cheilostomata), Kleidionella lobata Canu and Bassler and "Ocheto-sella" robusta Canu and Bassler, suggests (1) correlation with the Castle Hayne Limestone of Claiborne to Jackson age ; (2) a temperate zone, distinctly American biogeographic provenance; and (3) accumulation in quiet water.

Maine

Early pennsylvanian currents in the southern Appalachian Mountains

Measurement of more than 1200 cross-beds in lower Pennsylvanian sandstones of the southern Appalachian Mountains reveals a broad pattern of sediment transport to the southwest and west. Most of the sand appears to have been derived from the east and to have moved south-westward parallel to the axis of the Appalachian geosyncline. The pattern has a similar alignment to that in the Illinois basin, but it is at right angles to earlier Paleozoic dispersal directions in the Appalachian geosyncline. Little or no sand has been contributed from the Cincinnati arch. The cross-beds are in sheetlike sandstone formations; the sandstone is conglomeratic, contains plant impressions, and is composed of lenticular, channeling, quartzose sedimentation units. The variation in thickness and lateral persistence of sedimentation units is also reflected in a moderate variability of mean cross-bedding directions between adjacent formations, and even within the same formation. Cross-bedding variability between adjacent units is thought to be due to regional changes in the position and orientation of channel-way systems from deposition of one sandstone formation to the next. Changes of cross-bedding azimuths within the same formation may result from channel curvature of local meanderlike deposits or from channel migration as the sands coalesced into a blanket deposit.

Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia