9712191 Mountain This award will support a detailed, high resolution seismic study of the New Jersey margin. Significant research effort has focused on this margin in recent years with objective of NSF support on understanding history and amplitude of sea level change during the Tertiary. Series of holes has been drilled on-shore New Jersey (EAR and OCE support) and Ocean Drilling Program has focused on drilling offshore sediment sequences. Additional ODP drilling planned for July of this year in mid-shelf region. Office of Naval Research also supporting large project in area to examine acoustics and physical properties of shallow sediments. Present project has series of objectives, including seismically tieing land drilling to offshore work; mapping spatial variability in imaged Tertiary sediments; examining sea-level fluctuation in seismic data; and surveying shallow water sites for potential future drilling. Principal investigators at Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory and Rutgers University have been leaders in focusing community research effort on this margin. ***
