CONSTRAINING CLINOTHEMS FROM TOP TO BOTTOM: GROUND TRUTHING MODELS WITH SEISMIC, LOGS, AND CORES FROM NEW JERSEY EXPEDITION 313

IODP Expedition 313 continuously cored Miocene clinothems, offshore New Jersey, allowing comparison and investigation of sedimentary facies across the continental shelf tied to reflection seismic stratigraphy. Topset sediments were deposited in either wave/storm-dominated shoreface and delta environments or open shelf setting that comprise thin fining-upward units overlain by generally thicker coarsening-upward units. Fining- and coarsening-upward trends are interpreted as deepening (TST) and shallowing (HST) upwards deposits respectively from changes in sedimentary facies and foraminiferal biofacies. Foreset sediments consist of LST, TST, and HST deposits, although some foresets are composites showing a complicated interplay between sea-level rise and sediment supply. TST and HST sediment were deposited in offshore settings below storm base. High organic content and abundant mica indicate that sedimentation was influenced by riverine processes. Shallowing in water depth is more clearly represented by changes in benthic foraminiferal biofacies in these silty sediments. Benthic foraminiferal biofacies show bottomsets were deposited in deep water (75-100 m). Bottomset deposits are either fine grained facies that comprise silty clay to clayey silt in a low energy depositional environment, or coarse grained facies that comprise poorly sorted granule-rich quartz and glauconite sand deposited as mass transport deposits. Seismic resolution does not permit us to tie individual bottomset deposits to systems tracts in the foresets, but we speculate that coarser grained facies were deposited during lowstand and transgression when riverine systems were active close to the clinoform rollover, whereas fine grained facies were deposited during highstands when wave/storm process regimes dominated the shelf.