SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

At the Ocean View Leg 174AX borehole, 1575 ft (480.06 m) of middle Eocene to Holocene strata was continuously cored with very good recovery (81% total) and a full suite of downhole logs. Ocean View provided a record of middle to upper Miocene sequences that compliments Legs 150X and 174AX drilling at Cape May, and Atlantic City, New Jersey, and Bethany Beach, Delaware. More importantly, in comparison to other Legs 150X or 174AX boreholes, drilling at Ocean View provides the thickest and stratigraphically most complete record of

  1. Lower Miocene Sequences Kw2a and Kw1a, which may each be subdivided into three higher-order sequences at Ocean View;
  2. Oligocene sequences, where six to eight sequences are resolvable in one borehole for the first time;
  3. Upper Eocene deposition, including three to four thick sequences and an apparent record of the Chesapeake Bay impact event; and
  4. Middle Eocene sequences, revealed in a downdip location.

Several thick sandy aquifers and silty clay-confining units were recovered at Ocean View, including the Atlantic City 800-foot sand aquifer. By relating these aquifer-confining unit couplets to sequence stratigraphy, we should improve the hydrostratigraphic framework of the region.

NEXT