The role of sediment transport and sea-level fluctuations on the sequestration of offshore freshwater in passive continental margin environments

Abstract

Vast quantities ( > 100,000 cubic kilometers) of freshwater are sequestered within continental shelf clastic and limestone formations around the world up to 100 km offshore. We hypothesize that evolving stratigraphy, dynamically changing bathymetry, and sea level fluctuations during the Pleistocene have had an important impact on the distribution of offshore freshwater. Sediment deposition and the stratigraphic evolution of continental shelf deposits are controlled by a variety of tectonic, climate, and geomorphic processes. We illustrate the importance of these coupled processes on fresh water sequestration by presenting results from a simple numerical experiment in which we have reconstructed the stratigraphic and sedimentological evolution of offshore New Jersey, USA over the past 5 million years.