The U.S. Geological Survey is conducting a geological and geophysical study of the northeastern United States Outer Continental Shelf and the adjacent slope from Georges Bank to Cape Hatteras. The study also includes the adjacent Coastal Plain because it is a more accessible extension of the shelf. The total study area is about 324,000 sq km, of which the shelf and slope constitute about 181,000 sq km and the Coastal Plain constitutes 143,000 sq km. The shelf width ranges from about 30 km at Cape Hatteras to about 195 km off Raritan Bay and on Georges Bank. Analyses of bottom samples make it possible to construct a preliminary geologic map of the shelf and slope to a water depth of 2,000 m. The oldest beds cropping out in the submarine canyons and on the slope are of early Late Cretaceous age. Beds of Early Cretaceous and Jurassic age are present in deep wells onshore and probably are present beneath the shelf in the area of this study. Such beds are reported beneath the Scotian Shelf to the northeast where they include limestone, salt, and anhydrite. Preliminary conclusions suggest a considerably thicker Mesozoic sedimentary sequence than has been previously described. The region is large; the sedimentary wedge is thick; structures seem favorable, and the hydrocarbon potential may be considerable.

Open-File Report↗

USGS1971

Gold occurrences near Jefferson, South Carolina

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Bulletin↗

USGS1970

Gold occurrences near Jefferson, South Carolina

Gold, possibly in economic amounts, is present in the Jefferson area, South Carolina. It occurs in Slate Belt rocks of Paleozoic age, in Coastal Plain sediments of Cretaceous age, and in alluvial deposits of Quaternary age. The area is near the inner edge of the Coastal Plain province and includes the Brewer Gold Mine, which was intermittently active until 1935 and had a total gold production valued at about $450,000. Slate Belt rocks underlie the entire area and crop out mainly in valley slopes and upper drainage ways; auriferous Coastal Plain sediments underlie a small upland, and Quaternary alluvium lies in and along streams draining the upland and adjacent areas. Gold in the bedrock at the Brewer Mine occurs chiefly in vein lodes in siliceous volcanic and metavolcanic rocks of Paleozoic age. Gold in Coastal Plain sediments is mainly in placer deposits in the lower gravel layers. Gold in Quaternary alluvial deposits is in placers in the present stream channels and in flood plain and abandoned channel deposits. A lode deposit may exist in the rocks beneath the Coastal Plain sediments.

Open-File Report↗

USGS1969