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Kim D. Klitgord

Publications and source records attributed to Kim D. Klitgord.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
USGS1992

Depositional and tectonic framework of the rift basins of Lake Baikal from multichannel seismic data

Recent multichannel seismic reflection data from Lake Baikal, located in a large, active, continental rift in central Asia, image three major stratigraphic units totalling 3.5 to 7.5 km thick in four subbasins. A major change in rift deposition and faulting between the oldest and middle-rift units probably corresponds to the change from slow to fast rifting. A brief comparison of the basins of Lake Baikal with those of the East African rift system highlights differences in structural style that can be explained by differences in age and evolution of the surrounding basement rocks. -from Authors

Lake Baikal↗
USGS1991

E-4 Central Kentucky to the Carolina Trough

E-4 is one of eight Geodynamics transects that cross the Atlantic margin of North America between Georgia and Newfoundland. Five of the transects are in the United States and three are in Canada. Transect E-4, which is 110 km wide and more than 1,100 km long, extends from the stable North American craton just west of the Grenville front near Lexington, Kentucky southeastward across Cape Fear, North Carolina, on the Atlantic coast to oceanic crust east of the Blake Spur magnetic anomaly. Like all of the other U.S. Atlantic coast transects, it crosses Cambrian and Jurassic continental margins of North America as well as the Appalachian orogen. The display, based upon published information, portrays the geology, tectonic style and geophysical expression of this segment of the eastern North American continental margin and interprets its Phanerozoic history. The Decade of North American Geology 1983 geologic time scale (Palmer, 1983) is used throughout the display and text.

Book↗
USGS1990

Iberian plate kinematics: A jumping plate boundary between Eurasia and Africa

THE rotation of Iberia and its relation to the formation of the Pyrenees has been difficult to decipher because of the lack of detailed sea-floor spreading data, although several models have been proposed1-7. Here we use detailed aeromagnetic measurements from the sea floor offshore of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland to show that Iberia moved as part of the African plate from late Cretaceous to mid-Eocene time, with a plate boundary extending westward from the Bay of Biscay. When motion along this boundary ceased, a boundary linking extension in the King's Trough to compression along the Pyrenees came into existence. Finally, since the late Oligocene, Iberia has been part of the Eurasian plate, with the boundary between Eurasia and Africa situated along the Azores-Gibraltar fracture zone.

Nature↗
USGS1990

Integration of COCORP deep reflection and magnetic anomaly analysis in the southeastern United States: Implications for origin of the Brunswick and East Coast magnetic anomalies: Alternative interpretation and reply

Integration of magnetic anomaly analysis with COCORP deep reflection data from the southeastern United States provides three new constraints on the interpretation of the Brunswick and East Coast magnetic anomalies, as well as on the reflection data. These are as follows. (1) The source of the Brunswick anomaly lies within the deep crust. This anomaly is not caused by a Mesozoic rift basin, as proposed by some workers. (2) A simple, seaward-dipping, high- susceptibility slab model can explain both the Brunswick and East Coast magnetic anomalies. The along-strike change in character of the two anomalies results largely from a change in azimuth of the source body. (3) Beneath the southeastern United States, this source body dips south, lies immediately on the south flank of the prominent southward-dipping reflective zone revealed on COCORP surveys, and was previously associated with the Alleghanian suture between North America and Africa. These results imply that a dipping, highly magnetized zone in the upper plate of the Alleghanian suture is responsible for both the Brunswick and East Coast magnetic anomalies. The high- susceptibility material responsible for these anomalies might be mafic lower continental or oceanic crust thrust upward during Alleghanian continental collision, or mafic igneous material intruded into the upper plate of the suture zone during subsequent Mesozoic rifting, or both. The latter hypothesis implies that the Alleghanian suture acted, as a zone of weakness (a repository ?) which was reactivated to control the site of ultimate Atlantic rifting and possibly initial sea-floor spreading.

Geological Society of America Bulletin↗
USGS1990

Major off-axis hydrothermal activity on the northern Gorda Ridge

The first hydrothermal field on the northern Gorda Ridge, the Sea Cliff hydrothermal field, was discovered and geologic controls of hydrothermal activity in the rift valley were investigated on a dive series using the DSV Sea Cliff . The Sea Cliff hydrothermal field was discovered where predicted at the intersection of axis-oblique and axis-parallel faults at the south end of a linear ridge at mid-depth (2700 m) on the east wall. Preliminary mapping and sampling of the field reveal: a setting nested on nearly sediment-free fault blocks 300 m above the rift valley floor 2.6 km from the axis; a spectrum of venting types from seeps to black smokers; high conductive heat flow estimated to be equivalent to the convective flux of multiple black smokers through areas of the sea floor sealed by a caprock of elastic breccia primarily derived from basalt with siliceous cement and barite pore fillings; and a vent biota with Juan de Fuca Ridge affinites. These findings demonstrate the importance of off-axis hydrothermal activity and the role of the intersection of tectonic lineations in controlling hydrothermal sites at sea-floor spreading centers.

Gorda Ridge↗
USGS1988

The development of the continental margin of eastern North America-conjugate continental margin to West Africa

The continental margin of eastern North America was initiated when West Africa and North America were rifted apart in Triassic-Early Jurassic time. Cooling of the crust and its thinning by rifting and extension caused subsidence. Variation in amounts of subsidence led to formation of five basins. These are listed from south to north. (1) The Blake Plateau Basin, the southernmost, is the widest basin and the one in which the rift-stage basement took longest to form. Carbonate platform deposition was active and persisted until the end of Early Cretaceous. In Late Cretaceous, deposition slowed while subsidence persisted, so a deep water platform was formed. Since the Paleocene the region has undergone erosion. (2) The Carolina Trough is narrow and has relatively thin basement, on the basis of gravity modeling. The two basins with thin basement, the Carolina Trough and Scotian Basin, also show many salt diapirs indicating considerable deposition of salt during their early evolution. In the Carolina Trough, subsidence of a large block of strata above the flowing salt has resulted in a major, active normal fault on the landward side of the basin. (3) The Baltimore Canyon Trough has an extremely thick sedimentary section; synrift and postrift sediments exceed 18 km in thickness. A Jurassic reef is well developed on the basin's seaward side, but post-Jurassic deposition was mainly non-carbonate. In general the conversion from carbonate to terrigenous deposition, characteristics of North American Basins, occurred progressively earlier toward the north. (4) The Georges Bank Basin has a complicated deep structure of sub-basins filled with thick synrift deposits. This may have resulted from some shearing that occurred at this offset of the continental margin. Postrift sediments apparently are thin compared to other basins—only about 8 km. (5) The Scotian Basin, off Canada, contains Jurassic carbonate rocks, sandstone, shale and coal covered by deltaic deposits and Upper Cretaceous deeper water chalk and shale.

Journal of African Earth Sciences↗
USGS1988

U.S. Geological Survey deep seismic reflection profile across the Gulf of Maine

Deep seismic reflection and magnetic data suggest that the Gulf of Maine is underlain by four crustal blocks of differing reflection and magnetic character. Two of these blocks, the Gulf of Maine fault zone and adjacent central plutonic zone, can be correlated with Avalonian rocks in southern New England and New Brunswick. The boundary between them, the Fundy fault, projects onshore near the Ponkapoag fault in southeastern Massachusetts in a region where no major crustal boundary has (yet) been identified. A third block, called the southern plutonic zone, is interpreted as Avalonian, although the reflection and magnetic data are ambiguous. The fourth block, along the rifted continental margin, is correlated with Meguma rocks of Nova Scotia. The late Paleozoic Variscan front crosses the Gulf of Maine within the Gulf of Maine fault zone and indicates significant compressional movement rather than strike-slip. The Moho surface throughout the region is essentially flat and may have been produced by Mesozoic crustal extension. Associated modification of the lower crust was minimal in the northern Gulf and may have been moderate in the central and southern Gulf. The Franklin rift basin formed by reactivation of the inferred Avalon-Meguma boundary beneath Georges Bank as a low-angle detachment.

Gulf of Maine↗
USGS1987

Migration of mid-ocean-ridge volcanic segments

The propagation of small-offset volcanic spreading-centre segments along mid-ocean ridge crests may reflect absolute motion of the plate boundary relative to the underlying mesospheric frame. Such a relationship could be caused by a purely vertical flow of the mantle under spreading centres and would have value in constraining past plate motions from non-transform trends generated during along-ridge propagation and in linking the major-element variability of oceanic crust and upper mantle to the bulk composition and temperatures of mantle ascending under mid-ocean ridges.

Nature↗
USGS1987

Subsidence, crustal structure, and thermal evolution of Georges Bank basin

A geophysical study of Georges Bank basin defines a deep crustal structure that is interpreted in terms of the basin's tectonic and thermal history. Gravity models along three basin cross sections delineate two zones of crustal thinning at the basement hinge zone and oceanic crustal margins. These two zones bound rift-stage crust (about 25 km thick) which underlies the central portion of the basin. Subsidence analysis of the basin, using data from multichannel seismic reflection lines and two COST wells, suggests a rifting and (uniform) extensional origin. Two-dimensional finite difference modeling of the basin defines a crustal structure that concurs with the gravity and subsidence studies. The resulting isotherms show no major changes in the thermal structure since the ate Jurassic. In some areas of the basin, temperatures sufficient for oil generation are determined from maturation studies of Jurassic sediments. Hydrocarbon generation is questionable, however, because of the probable lack of proper and sufficient kerogen in the Jurassic deposits.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulle↗
USGS1987

Geology of the Caribbean

The Venezuelan and Colombian basins are located on the Caribbean Plate whilst the Yucatan basin is on the North American Plate. The processes occurring at the boundaries between the Caribbean Plate and the adjacent North American, South American and Cocos Plates, and the resulting surface features and patterns of volcanic and earthquake activity are described. Most of the Caribbean area is floored by atypical oceanic crust and its most valuable main geologic resources identified so far are petroleum, together with sand and gravel. Geological research is being carried out with techniques for broad-range swath imaging of the seafloor, such as GLORIA, and for directly measuring the movement between plates. -J.G.Harvey

Oceanus↗
USGS1987

Passive margins: U.S. Geological Survey Line 19 across the Georges Bank basin

Georges Bank is a shallow part of the Atlantic continental shelf southeast of New England (Emery and Uchupi, 1972, 1984). This bank, however, is merely the upper surface of several sedimentary basins overlying a block-faulted basement of igneous and metamorphic crystalline rock. Sedimentary rock forms a seaward-thickening cover that has accumulated in one main depocenter and several ancillary depressions, adjacent to shallow basement platforms of paleozoic and older crystalline rock. Georges Bank basin contains a thickness of sedimentary rock greater than 10 km, whereas the basement platforms that flank the basin are areas of thin sediment accumulation (less than 5 km).

AAPG Studies in Geology↗
USGS1985

Segmentation of mid-ocean ridges

Studies of mid-ocean ridges in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans show that the volcanism that forms the oceanic crust along the spreading-plate boundaries is concentrated at regular intervals related to spreading rate. This observation and a new calculation for a Rayleigh-Taylor type of gravitational instability of a partially molten mantle region growing under spreading centres yield reasonable estimates of upper mantle viscosities.

Nature↗
USGS1985

Block Island fault: A Paleozoic crustal boundary on the Long Island platform

A major fault cutting through most of the crust can be identified and mapped on the Long Island platform using multichannel seismic reflection profiles and magnetic data. The fault, here called the Block Island fault (BIF), strikes north-northeast, dips westward at low angle, and does not resemble the thin-skinned thrust faulting observed in the foreland of the Appalachians. The BIF is located within the hinterland of the Appalachian mountain belt in the collision zone between Africa and North America. We present several interpretations but favor one in which the fault originated as an east-verging mid–late Paleozoic thrust fault, possibly related to the collision of Avalon or Meguma with North America. It was probably reactivated during early Mesozoic continental breakup and again in the Late Cretaceous and Tertiary, causing the steeply dipping postrift New Shoreham fault to form, either as an antithetic (normal) or splay (reverse) fault.

Long Island platform↗
USGS1983

Crustal structure beneath the southern Appalachians: Nonuniqueness of gravity modeling

Gravity models computed for a profile across the long-wavelength paired negative-positive Bouguer anomalies of the southern Appalachian Mountains show that the large negative anomaly can be explained by a crustal root zone, whereas the steep gradient and positive anomaly east of the root may be explained equally well by three different geometries: a suture zone, a mantle upwarp, or a shallow body. Seismic data support the existence of a mountain root but are inadequate to resolve differences among the three possible geometries for the positive anomaly. The presence of outcropping mafic and ultramafic rocks in the southern Appalachians and the inferred tectonic history of the Appalachian orogen are most consistent with the suture-zone model. Crust similar to continental crust probably exists beneath the Coastal Plain and inner continental shelf where the gravity anomalies return to near-zero values.

Appalachian Mountains↗
USGS1983

Studies related to the Charleston, South Carolina, earthquake of 1886 — Tectonics and seismicity

Since 1973, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), with support from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, has conducted extensive investigations of the tectonic and seismic history of the Charleston, S.C., earthquake zone and surrounding areas. The goal of these investigations has been to discover the cause of the large intraplate Charleston earthquake of 1886, which dominates the record of seismicity in the Southeastern United States, through an understanding of the historic and modern seismicity at Charleston and of the tectonic setting of the seismicity. This goal is being pursued to evaluate the potential for additional large earthquakes in the Charleston area and surrounding regions and to determine whether the Charleston area differs tectonically in any significant fashion from other parts of the Southeastern United States. An understanding of the specific cause for the 1886 event and of the regional distribution of any structures that are generically related to or geometrically and mechanically similar to the source structure is essential for evaluation of seismic hazards throughout the Southeast. The results given herein represent significant progress toward understanding the tectonic setting of the Charleston-area seismicity. Several chapters in the volume address the distribution and origin of pre-Cretaceous rocks and structures beneath Coastal Plain sediments in the Charleston area and regionally beneath the southern Atlantic Coastal Plain and adjacent Continental Shelf. The modern seismicity at Charleston is occurring at depths equal to or greater than the known extent of these older structures, and rejuvenation of an older fault in the modern stress field is a possible cause of the seismicity. Accordingly, several chapters discuss the possible relationships of the various pre-Cretaceous structures to faults identified near Charleston that have a known Cretaceous and Cenozoic movement history and to the historic and instrumentally recorded seismicity. However, at the present time, none of the young structures can be related unequivocally to the seismicity because earthquake fault-plane solutions and hypocenter distributions do not agree with the locations and orientations of these structures. Therefore, a major emphasis of continuing USGS investigations near Charleston will be to identify additional faults, if any exist, to delineate fault movement histories, and to further refine earthquake locations, focal mechanisms, and related seismological interpretations.

Florida, Georgia, South Carolina↗
USGS1982

The memory of the accreting plate boundary and the continuity of fracture zones

A detailed aeromagnetic anomaly map of the Mesozoic seafloor-spreading lineations southwest of Bermuda reveals the dominant magnetic grain of the oceanic crust and the character of the accreting boundary at the time of crustal formation. The magnetic anomaly pattern is that of a series of elongate lobes perpendicular to the fracture zone (flowline) trends. The linear sets of magnetic anomaly peaks and troughs have narrow regions of reduced amplitude anomalies associated with the fracture zones. During the period of Mesozoic geomagnetic polarity reversals (when 1200 km of central North Atlantic seafloor formed), the Atlantic accreting boundary consisted of stationary, elongate, spreading center cells that maintained their independence even though sometimes only minor spatial offsets existed between cells. Normal oceanic crustal structure was formed in the spreading center cells, but structural anomalies and discontinuities characteristic of fracture zones were formed at their boundaries, which parallel flowlines of Mesozoic relative plate motion in the central North Atlantic. We suggest that the memory for a stationary pattern of independent spreading center cells resides in the young brittle lithosphere at the accreting boundary where the lithosphere is weakest; here, each spreading center cell independently goes through its cylce of stress buildup, stress release, and crustal accretion, after which its memory is refreshed. The temporal offset between the peaks of the accretionary activity that takes place within each cell may provide the mechanism for maintaining the independence of adjacent spreading center cells through times when no spatial offset between the cells exists.

Earth and Planetary Science Letters↗