Seafloor Environments within the Boston Harbor- Massachusetts Bay Sedimentary System: A Regional Synthesis
Knebel HJ and Circé RC. 1995. Seafloor Environments within the Boston Harbor- Massachusetts Bay Sedimentary System: A Regional Synthesis. Journal of Coastal Research (JCR). 11(1):230-251
Modern seafloor sedimentary environments within the glaciated, topographically complex Boston Harbor and Massachusetts Bay area have been interpreted and mapped from an extensive collection of sidescan sonar records and supplemental marine geologic data. Three categories of environments are present that reflect the dominant long-term processes of erosion or nondeposition, deposition, and sediment reworking. (1) Environments of erosion or nondeposition comprise exposures of bedrock, glacial drift, coarse lag deposits, and possibly coastal plain rocks that contain sediments (where present) ranging from boulder fields to gravelly sands and occur in areas of relatively strong currents. (2) Environments of deposition contain fine-grained sediments ranging from muddy sands to muds that have accumulated in areas of predominantly weak bottom currents. (3) Environments of sediment reworking contain patches with textures ranging from sandy gravels to muds that have been produced by a combination of erosion and deposition in areas with variable bottom currents.
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Knebel, Harley; Circé, Ronald
- Units
- BOHA
- Keywords
- bottom topography, Coastal Zone, Estuaries, estuarine sedimentation, Marine Sediments, sediment composition, Sedimentation, Topography