Geology of the Monterey Bay region
Open Access
- 1 January 1977
- report
- Published by US Geological Survey in Open-File Report
Abstract
Geophysical data and sea floor samples collected from the continental shelf and slope between Ano Nuevo Point and Point Sur, California indicate that the Monterey Bay region has had a complex late Cenozoic tectonic history. Uplift and depression have produced a succession of regressive and transgressive sedimentary units, while contemporaneous right-slip along faults of the San Andreas system have offset major structural and lithologic elements. This deformation produced three regional and several local unconformities within upper Tertiary rocks and initiated development of a canyon system that today includes the Monterey, Ascension, Carmel, and other large submarine canyons. The Tertiary stratigraphy of the offshore Monterey Bay area is divided into two provinces by a major structural boundary, the north-trending Palo Colorado-San Gregorio fault zone. East of this zone in the offshore are four seismically distinct sequences that can be correlated with major sequences onshore. These sequences comprise (1) pre-Tertiary basement, and...Keywords
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