Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-d8cs5 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-14T14:31:12.669Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Sequence Stratigraphy, Depositional History, and Middle to Late Quaternary Sea Levels of the Ventura Shelf, California

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Margaret Z. Dahlen
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

High-resolution shallow seismic profiles from the Ventura shelf reveal two contrasting, structurally controlled styles of deposition. On the northern shelf, folded Plio-Pleistocene strata comprising the south limb of the Ventura Avenue anticline are unconformably overlain by undeformed late Quaternary strata. In contrast, a thicker section of undeformed, prograding deltaic sequences preserved on the subsiding southern shelf contains a detailed record of at least five middle and late Quaternary glacioeustatic sea-level oscillations. A transgressive surface at −140 m in upper Pleistocene Saugus deposits is overlain by transgressive and highstand systems tracts. A shelf-margin systems tract subsequently developed as the sea level lowered, marking the end of Saugus deposition. Thereafter, over 50 m of post-Saugus upper Pleistocene sediment accumulated during a period of smaller-scale sea-level oscillations, followed by the development of a pair of marine terraces, presently at −50 and −33 m, and a large fluvial channel, now buried at −113 m. Correlations of Saugus and terrace marker horizons with the middle to late Quaternary paleosea-level curve suggest development of the Saugus marker horizons during oxygen isotopic stages 7-5e and formation of the terraces during Wisconsinan high sea levels. Maximum rates of vertical separation on the Oak Ridge and Pitas Point faults are estimated to be 0.13 and 0.30 m/1000 yr, respectively.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 38 , Issue 2 , September 1992 , pp. 234 - 245
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Chappell, J. Shackleton, N.J. Oxygen isotopes and sea level Nature 324 1986 137 140 Google Scholar
Dahlen, M.Z. Osborne, R.H. Gorsline, D.S. Late Quaternary history of the Ventura mainland shelf, California Marine Geology 94 1990 317 340 Google Scholar
Field, M.E. Carlson, P.R. Hall, R.K. Seismic facies of shelfedge deposits, U.S. Pacific Stanely, D.J. The Shelfbreak: Critical Interface on Continental Margins Special Publication 33 1983 Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists Tulsa, OK 299 313 Google Scholar
Fischer, P.J. Geologic Evolution and Quaternary Geology of the Santa Barbara Basin, Southern California unpublished Ph.D. dissertation 1972 Univ. of Southern California Google Scholar
Greene, H.G. Wolf, S.C. Blom, K.G. The marine geology of the eastern Santa Barbara Channel with particular emphasis on the ground water basins offshore from the Oxnard Plain, southern California U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 78–395 1978 Google Scholar
Haq, B.U. Hardenbol, J. Vail, P.R. The chronology of fluctuating sea level since the Triassic Science 235 1987 1156 1167 Google Scholar
Lajoie, K.L. Kern, J.P. Wehmiller, J.F. Kennedy, G.L. Mathiesen, S.A. Sarna-Wojcicki, A.A. Yerkes, R.F. McCroy, P.F. Quaternary marine shorelines and crustal deformations, San Diego to Santa Barbara, California Abbott, P.L. Geological Excursions in the Southern California Area 1979 Department of Geological Sciences, San Diego State University 3 15 Google Scholar
Lajoie, K.R. Sarna-Wojcicki, A.M. Yerkes, R.F. Quaternary chronology and rates of crustal deformation in the Ventura area, California Cooper, J.D. Neotectonics in Southern California GSA Cordilleran Section Field Trip Guidebook 1982 43 51 Google Scholar
Lajoie, K.R. Coastal tectonics Usselman, T.M. Studies in Geophysics—Active Tectonics 1986 National Academy Press Washington, DC 95 124 Google Scholar
Mitchum, R.M. Jr. Vail, P.R. Sangree, J.B. Stratigraphic interpretation of seismic reflection patterns in depositional sequences Payton, C.E. Seismic Stratigraphy—Applications to Hydrocarbon Exploration American Association of Petroleum Geologists Memoir 26 1977 117 134 Google Scholar
Posamentier, H.W. Vail, P.R. Eustatic controls on clastic deposition II—Sequence and systems tract models Wilgus, C.K. Hastings, B.S. Posamentier, H. Van Wagoner, J.C. Ross, C.A. Kendall, C.G.S. Seal-Level Changes: An Integrated Approach Special Publication 42 1988 Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists Tulsa, OK 125 154 Google Scholar
Rockwell, T.K. Keller, E.A. Dembroff, G.R. Quaternary rate of folding of the Ventura Avenue anticline, western Transverse Ranges, southern California Geological Society of America Bulletin 100 1988 850 858 Google Scholar
Sarna-Wojcicki, A.M. Williams, K.M. Yerkes, R.F. Geology of the Ventura faults, Ventura County, California U.S. Geological Survey Map MF-781 1976 3 sheets Google Scholar
Shackleton, N.J. Opdyke, N.D. Oxygen isotope and paleomagnetic stratigraphy of Equatorial Pacific core V28–238: Oxygen isotope temperature and ice volumes on a 105 year and 106 year scale Quaternary Research 3 1973 39 55 Google Scholar
Van Wagoner, J.C. Posamentier, R.M. Mitchum, P.R. Jr. Vail, P.R. Sarg, J.F. Loutit, T.S. Hardenbol, J. An overview of the fundamentals of sequence stratigraphy and key definitions Wilgus, C.K. Hastings, B.S. Posamentier, H. Van Wagoner, J.C. Ross, C.A. Kendall, C.G.S. Sea-Level Changes: An Integrated Approach Special Publication 42 1988 Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists Tulsa, OK 39 45 Google Scholar
Wehmiller, J.F. Lajoie, K.R. Sarna-Wojcicki, A.M. Yerkes, R.F. Dennedy, G.L. Stephens, T.A. Kohl, R.F. Amino-acid racemization dating of Quaternary mollusks, Pacific coast, United States Zartman, R.E. 14th International Conference on Geochronology, Cosmochronology, Isotope Geology, Short Papers U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 78–701 1978 445 448 Google Scholar
Yeats, R.S. Neogene tectonics of the central Ventura basin Fritsche, A.E. The Neogene Symposium 1976 Pacific Section, Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists 19 32 Google Scholar
Yeats, R.S. High rates of vertical movement near Ventura, California Science 196 1977 295 298 Google Scholar
Yeats, R.S. Neogene acceleration of subsidence rates in southern California Geology 6 1978 456 460 Google Scholar
Yeats, R.S. Late Quaternary slip rates on the Oak Ridge fault, Transverse Ranges, California: Implications for seismic risk Journal of Geophysical Research 93 1988 12,137 12,149 Google Scholar
Yeats, R.S. Huftile, G.T. Grigsby, F.B. Oak Ridge fault, Ventura fold belt, and the Sisar decollement, Ventura basin, California Geology 16 1988 1112 1116 Google Scholar
Yerkes, R.F. Sarna-Wojcicki, A.M. Lajoie, K.R. Geology and Quaternary deformation of the Ventura area U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1339 1987 169 178 Google Scholar