Austin James A.

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Austin
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James A.
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  • Thesis
    Geology of the passive margin off New England
    (Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 1978-12) Austin, James A.
    The results of a detailed geophysical investigation conducted by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in 1975 have been used in conjunction with other available information to reconstruct the geologic history of the passive continental margin off New England. Rifting between northeastern North America and Morocco during the Middle-Late Triassic produced a complex series of horsts and grabens in Precambrian/Paleozoic crust. Intra-rift sediments consist of clastics, evaporites, and volcanics. Continental separation occurred and sea-floor spreading began 195-190 my B.P. The boundary between "normal" continental crust and crust radically altered by fracturing and intrusion may be represented by a pronounced basement "hinge zone". Prior to margin subsidence, extensive sub- aerial erosion carved a "break-up unconformity"-reflector "K" which truncated pre-existing rift structures and which must be approximately the same age as the oldest oceanic crust. Within the overlying "drift" sediments, six acoustic horizons have been regionally traced and correlated with strata sampled by a well drilled on the western Scotian Shelf. The total sediment thickness of both rift and drift sequences beneath Georges Bank may be 13 km, of which more than 80% is Jurassic in age. A Mesozoic reef/carbonate platform complex situated on the outer shelf-upper slope was an effective sediment barrier until the early Late Cretaceous, when prograding clastics buried the complex. This carbonate build-up and its basement foundation of altered continental or oceanic crust are responsible for the geographic position and steepness (5-8°) of the present continental slope south of Georges Bank.
  • Preprint
    The impact of Hurricane Sandy on the shoreface and inner shelf of Fire Island, New York : large bedform migration but limited erosion
    ( 2015-03) Goff, John A. ; Flood, Roger D. ; Austin, James A. ; Schwab, William C. ; Christensen, Beth ; Browne, Cassandra M. ; Denny, Jane F. ; Baldwin, Wayne E.
    We investigate the impact of superstorm Sandy on the lower shoreface and inner shelf offshore the barrier island system of Fire Island, NY using before-and-after surveys involving swath bathymetry, backscatter and CHIRP acoustic reflection data. As sea level rises over the long term, the shoreface and inner shelf are eroded as barrier islands migrate landward; large storms like Sandy are thought to be a primary driver of this largely evolutionary process. The “before” data were collected in 2011 by the U.S. Geological Survey as part of a long-term investigation of the Fire Island barrier system. The “after” data were collected in January, 2013, ~two months after the storm. Surprisingly, no widespread erosional event was observed. Rather, the primary impact of Sandy on the shoreface and inner shelf was to force migration of major bedforms (sand ridges and sorted bedforms) 10’s of meters WSW alongshore, decreasing in migration distance with increasing water depth. Although greater in rate, this migratory behavior is no different than observations made over the 15-year span prior to the 2011 survey. Stratigraphic observations of buried, offshore-thinning fluvial channels indicate that long-term erosion of older sediments is focused in water depths ranging from the base of the shoreface (~13-16 m) to ~21 m on the inner shelf, which is coincident with the range of depth over which sand ridges and sorted bedforms migrated in response to Sandy. We hypothesize that bedform migration regulates erosion over these water depths and controls the formation of a widely observed transgressive ravinement; focusing erosion of older material occurs at the base of the stoss (upcurrent) flank of the bedforms. Secondary storm impacts include the formation of ephemeral hummocky bedforms and the deposition of a mud event layer.
  • Article
    Fifty Years of Scientific Ocean Drilling
    (Oceanography Society, 2019-03-16) Becker, Keir ; Austin, James A. ; Exon, Neville ; Humphris, Susan E. ; Kastner, Miriam ; McKenzie, Judith A. ; Miller, Kenneth G. ; Suyehiro, Kiyoshi ; Taira, Masanori
    Nearly a century after the first systematic study of the global ocean and seafloor by HMS Challenger (1871–1876), US scientists began to drill beneath the seafloor to unlock the secrets of the ~70% of Earth’s surface covered by the seas. Fifty years of scientific ocean drilling by teams of international partners has provided unparalleled advancements in Earth sciences. Here, we briefly review the history, impacts, and scientific achievements of five decades of coordinated scientific ocean drilling.