Movie 1: Glenn Spinelli and Roberta Hotinski, students in Advanced Stratigraphy, produced this movie as the result of an attempt to model the architecture of the New Jersey margin using realistic input parameters inferred from seismic sections and well log data.
"Clastic input was determined by dividing the area of sediment deposited during the Miocene (since Strata is a 2-D model) by the duration of this period. A rough subsidence rate was then calculated by dividing the height of the platform by the duration of the Miocene and correcting for isostatic effects. In order
to achieve lateral progradation of the platform, 200 m of accommodation
space was supplied at the beginning of the simulation and the resulting
"hole" was allowed to subside at a rate of 0.0675 mm/yr with isostatic
effects and compaction to provide the rest of the necessary
accommodation space. Finally, a sealevel curve for the platform was
derived from times of first onlap and thicknesses of successive
sequences.
The simulated platform shown in the movie has the approximate
dimensions and foreset angles of the actual platform. Highstand system
tracts, though, are not as well preserved as in the real platform.
This is due in part to the fact that Strata cannot simulate the local
incision of channels on the platform when sealevel falls. Instead the
entire shelf is eroded as baselevel is lowered, removing a significant
portion of the previous highstand systems tract which would be preserved
in an actual platform."
- Roberta Hotinski