Underwater Television Survey of the Atlantic Outer Continental Margin near Wilmington Canyon

Abstract

The study summarizes the results of an underwater television survey of the sea floor at the shelfbreak and at the head of Wilmington Canyon off the Middle Atlantic States. Distributions are shown for bottom currents and sedimentary structures, suspended matter, bottom firmness, bottom lithology, shell percentage, and fauna. A number of man-made objects on the sea floor in this area is documented. The Appendix is a listing of observations made at 26 stations. These data, based on direct visual observation of the sea floor, serve to complement earlier marine geological investigations made in this region. Mapping shows that surficial outer shelf and canyon head sediments at the shelfbreak are undergoing modification by both bottom current processes <i>and</i> bioturbation and that at the present time the Wilmington Canyon is receiving sediment mainly from the adjacent margin. Gravel, oyster banks, and near-vertical cavernous cliffs occurring at depths between 100 and 200 m are relict features related to eustatic changes of sea level that affected the outer continental margin during the Pleistocene.