FORMATION OF HEALD BANK ON THE EAST TEXAS INNER CONTINENTAL SHELF: INSIGHTS FROM RECENT GEOPHYSICAL DATA

Heald Bank is a sand body located ~50km offshore the East Texas coast. It, and a series of neighboring banks, have been proposed to be remnant barrier islands drowned by Holocene sea level transgression. We present ~90km CHIRP data, recently acquired during the University of Texas marine geophysics field course, and investigate the proposed mechanisms of Heald Bank formation and preservation. Our high-resolution dataset resolves several features and stratigraphic relationships that were previously difficult to image, and potentially lead to new interpretations of the nature of Heald Bank.