Pockmarks in Passamaquoddy Bay, New Brunswick, Canada

Authors

L. L. Brothers, US Geological Survey
C. Legere, Memorial University of Newfoundland
John E. Hughes Clarke, University of New Hampshire, DurhamFollow
J. T. Kelley, University of Maine
W. A. Barnhardt, US Geological SurveyFollow
B. D. Andrews, US Geological SurveyFollow
D. F. Belknap, University of MaineFollow

Abstract

Pockmarks are seafloor depressions associated with fluid escape (Judd & Hovland 2007). They proliferate in the muddy seafloors of coastal Gulf of Maine and Bay of Fundy, where they are associated with shallow natural gas likely of biogenic origin (Ussler et al. 2003; Rogers et al. 2006; Wildish et al. 2008). In North America, shallow-water pockmark fields are not reported south of Long Island Sound, despite the abundance of gassy, muddy estuaries. The absence of pockmarks south of the limit of North American glaciation suggests that local and regional heterogeneities, possibly related to glacial or sea-level history or bedrock geology, influence pockmark field distribution. In shallow-water embayments, such as Passamaquoddy Bay, New Brunswick, pockmarks can be large (>200 m diameter) and number in the thousands.

Department

Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping

Publication Date

1-1-2016

Journal Title

Geological Society, London, Memoirs

Publisher

Geological Society of London

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://dx.doi.org/10.1144/M46.60

Document Type

Article

Recommended Citation

Brothers, L. L., Legere, C., Hughes Clarke, J. E., Kelley, J. T, Barnhardt, W. A., Andrews, B. D. and Belknap, D. F., 2016, Pockmarks in Passamaquoddy Bay, New Brunswick, Canada: Geological Society of London Memoirs, v. 46, p. 111-112, doi:10.1144/M46.60.