Geomorphology and Geologic Structure: Straits of Florida

Genesis and morphology of cold-water coral ridges in a unidirectional current regime

“…The depositional hiatus observed at each terrace level is caused by different mechanisms. The relatively flat upper terrace (200 to 375 m deep and up 22 km wide) is interpreted as a karstified surface, originated from subaerially exposure and subsequently drowning in the early to Middle Miocene (Malloy and Hurley, 1970;Mullins and Neumann, 1979). In contrast, the lower terrace is a discontinuous erosional surface (630 to 710 m deep and 3 km wide) that probably formed during the intensification of the bottom current in the mid-Miocene (Mullins and Neumann, 1979).…”

“…The Miami Terrace is a drowned carbonate platform that outcrops eastward from the relatively smooth Florida-Hatteras slope into the northern Straits of Florida (Uchupi, 1969;Malloy and Hurley, 1970;Neumann and Ball, 1970;Mullins and Neumann, 1979) (Fig. 1A).…”

Walkers Cay Fault, Bahamas: Evidence for Cenozoic faulting

“…postrift) structural features [6][7][8][9], although the presence of Cenozoic faults was inferred [10, I 1]. To date, the best evidence for post-rift faulting in the northern Bahamas comes from the dredging of a faulted limestone block of Late Cretaceous age from the vicinity of Great Abaco Canyon [ 12].…”

Acoustic tomography in the Straits of Florida

“…base, with a surface layer of sediment a few meters thick (Malloy and Hurley, 1970). An 'average' picture of the Florida Current at latitude 27 0 N, as seen by the Pegasus acoustic current profiler, is illustrated in Figure 2.3 (from A highly baroclinic structure is evident as the current speed decreases rapidly with depth.…”

“…The bottom depth is constant for both cases, and represents the average along the leg (as obtained by interpolation of the bathymetric chart of Malloy and Hurley (1970) Figure 3.3. Range independent ray traces for transmission along (a)the north/south leg of the array (S1R2 or S2R1), and (b)the lower leg (S1R3 or S3R1).…”