THE ENAM COMMUNITY SEISMIC EXPERIMENT: AN OPEN OPPORTUNITY TO INVESTIGATE THE EASTERN MARGIN OF NORTH AMERICA
The ENAM CSE is an NSF-funded community based onshore-offshore controlled- and passive-source seismic experiment spanning a 400 km-wide section of the mid-Atlantic East Coast passive margin around Cape Hatteras. The experiment was designed to address prominent research questions regarding the development of continental rifting and the evolution of passive margins, with particular emphasis on the role of the pre-existing lithospheric grain on the geometry of continental rupture, the distribution and volume of magmatism, and the along-strike segmentation of the margin. To address these questions the acquisition footprint spans the rifted margin, from the continental lithosphere onshore to mature oceanic lithosphere offshore, and two major fracture zones that are associated with significant offsets at the modern Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The study also covers several features representing the post-rift modification of the margin by slope instability and fluid flow. The seismic survey is scheduled to be carried out in September 2014, and will acquire data at a full range of scales and resolutions. The experiment includes an onshore/offshore passive seismic array, marine seismic reflection and refraction profiles and two major offshore/onshore active-source refraction profiles. The data acquired as part of the ENAM CSE will be available to the community immediately upon completion of QC procedures required for archiving purposes. To maximize the educational impact the project includes a multifaceted syn- and post-data acquisition plan involving young scientists and students.