Data from: New insights on continental rifting in eastern North America: Subsurface extent and significance of Jurassic red beds in the southeastern U.S.

Abstract

Integration of 2-D seismic reflection profiles (2013) with previous seismic and well data from the Coastal Plain area of Georgia and South Carolina provide evidence for a newly-discovered stratigraphic section associated with the post-rift phase of the South Georgia Rift (SGR). Named after the town near the seismic acquisition site, the section is referred to as red beds of Hazlehurst (RbH) in this paper. The stratigraphic section can be mainly identified structurally and stratigraphically in reflection seismic profiles. It sits unconformably above the syn-rift Triassic basin strata or basement rocks and sits below the regional basal unconformity ("J") of the Coastal Plain sequence. Due to the similar lithologies with the exposed Triassic basin red beds and sparse well penetrations, RbH has yet to be clearly documented. As a result, the areal extent of the underlying Triassic rift basins in the southeastern U.S. was overestimated. This contribution implies that the RbH 1) pinches out stratigraphically up dip of the Fall Line and thins down dip of the coastline, 2) could have a regional areal extent over 300,000 km2 along the north American margin before erosion, 3) is largely composed of undeformed sub-horizontal sedimentary red beds, and 4) provides age constraints for the rift-to-drift transition and a two-phased magmatism tectonic evolution model.