About

Gregory Mountain is a Professor at Rutgers University in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. His research interests include sea level rise, marine sediment transport, and sequence stratigraphy. His educational background includes a B.A. in geology and geophysics from Brown University, and both an M.A. and a Ph.D. in marine geology from Columbia University. His work focuses on the origin, maintenance, and burial of submarine canyons on continental slopes, with specific studies on the stratigraphic record in continental margin sediments influenced by factors such as eustasy, sediment supply, and glaciation. Mountain has conducted research on abyssal sediment drifts in the North Atlantic Ocean, the causes of large-scale unconformities in continental margin sediments, and the effects of sea level changes on continental shelf unconformities, utilizing shallow cores and high-resolution profiles. He has been involved in international projects, including drilling and logging sites on the New Jersey continental shelf and the Mediterranean margin south of France, to understand sedimentation processes and stratigraphic variations. His contributions include advancing knowledge of the tectonic development of transtensional basins in the Gulf of California and the evolution of continental rift basins. Mountain has authored numerous publications on these topics, emphasizing the geological and oceanographic processes shaping continental margins and deep-sea environments.

Research topics

• Geology
• Oceanography
• Computer Security
• Computer Science
• Paleontology

Selected publications

• Drilling the New Jersey shallow shelf to evaluate Miocene continental margin sequences, sea level, and resources

  Marine Geology · 2025-02-27 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access

  We review scientific ocean drilling of the New Jersey passive continental margin and the success of Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP 1 ) Expedition 313 in addressing long-standing, fundamental issues of sequence stratigraphy, sea-level change, and resources. The New Jersey margin was targeted for study by several generations of ocean drilling because of its thick, prograding Oligocene to Quaternary sequences bounded by unconformities. Coring and logging on the onshore coastal plain (Ocean Drilling Program [ODP] Legs 150X http://www-odp.tamu.edu/publications/citations/cite150X.html and 174AX), outer continental shelf (Leg 174A), and continental slope and rise (Legs 95, 150, and 174A) provided a chronology of sea-level lowerings but did not sample facies needed to evaluate Miocene sea-level amplitudes. Expedition 313 used a Mission Specific Platform (L/B Kayd ) to drill on the shallow continental shelf, recover critical Miocene facies, particularly on clinoform foresets, and capture the full amplitudes of relative sea-level changes. Expedition 313 overcame challenging borehole conditions and recovered a total of 1311 m of core at three sites (81 % recovery) that: (1) correlated difficult-to-date nearshore-shelf facies to the time scale with resolution better than ±0.5 million years (Myr); (2) tested and confirmed that sequence boundaries are a primary cause of seismic reflections on siliciclastic shelves; (3) tested sequence stratigraphic models with core-log-seismic integration; and. (4) provided a record of paleodepth changes through time that constrained amplitudes of Miocene sea-level change, including the influence of mantle dynamic topography. The New Jersey relative sea-level estimates are similar to those obtained using stable isotopes and Mg/Ca paleothermometry, showing that GMGSL (“eustasy”) varied with 10–60 m scale amplitudes on the Myr scale. Drilling beneath the shallow continental shelf also identified groundwater sources, including seawater, deep-sourced brines, and meteoric fresh water, that represent potential resources for future generations. Studies of this margin have implications for future subsurface storage of supercritical CO 2 and geotechnical issues relating to the location of offshore wind infrastructure. Expedition 313 demonstrated the feasibility of continuously recovering and logging strata in shallow water, providing constraints on sea level, sequences, hydrogeology, and resources. • IODP Mission Specific Platform Exp 313 New Jersey shallow shelf Miocene sequences. • Correlated difficult-to-date nearshore-shelf facies to the time scale ±0.5 Myr. • Confirmed that sequence boundaries are a primary cause of seismic reflections. • Tested sequence stratigraphic models with core-log-seismic integration. • Constrained Miocene sea-level, including the influence of mantle dynamic topography.

  PublisherDOI

• Miocene coastal and shelf processes inferred from the geomorphological analysis of 3D seismic reflection data offshore New Jersey

  2025-03-15

  preprintOpen access

  We present findings from the first academic high-resolution, high-density (3.125x6.25 m line spacing) conventional 3D seismic reflection data (550 km2) acquired on the shallow New Jersey continental shelf. This dataset enables us to identify and describe geomorphological evidence of coastal and marine processes during the Miocene. By combining seismic geomorphological analysis (performed on 3D data in map view) with quantitative geometric analysis of clinoforms (performed on 2D seismic profiles), we examine the interplay between change in margin architecture and dominant processes during major climatic perturbations, including the Miocene Climate Optimum (MCO, 17 - 13.8 Ma), and subsequent global cooling during the Middle Miocene Climate Transition (MMCT, ca. 13.8-12.8 Ma).Our analysis shows that during the pre-MCO, clinoforms exhibited moderate lateral shifts of rollover points basinward (up to ~7 km; up to 6 km/Myr) with mostly flat clinoform rollover trajectories. Sediment thicknesses were similar on clinoform topsets and bottomsets. During the MCO, clinoforms transitioned to high aggradation-to-progradation ratios with steep rollover trajectories. In stark contrast, the MMCT and post-MMCT intervals are marked by rapid dramatic progradation (up to 35 km in 0.4Myr) and flat to falling rollover trajectories. During the MMCT, sediments primarily bypassed the topset domain. Topsets of the post-MMCT interval are, however, thick and are associated with relatively small-scale, low-angle clinoforms that we interpret as subaerial delta fronts.Surprisingly, we have not detected signs of subaerial exposure, such as incised valleys, fluvial or tidal channels, barrier islands and beaches, etc., during the pre-MCO, the MCO, and the MMCT intervals. The first signs of subaerial exposure appeared ~12 Ma, where we identified remnants of meander bends within a NNW-SSE-trending channel belt. This channel belt appears to be truncated by an overlying fluvial system trending NW-SE comprising relatively narrow (~20-120 m), up to ~10-12 m deep anastomosing, low-sinuosity channels. The NW-SE fluvial system also cuts through a series of >10 km-long, tens-of-meters-wide, closely spaced, parallel linear to arcuate, positive-relief features. We interpret these as beach ridges that formed on the regressive coast (as opposed to the Holocene transgressive New Jersey coast). Our seismic analysis suggests the Lower to Middle Miocene paleoshelf topsets remained submerged until at least the late Middle Miocene (ca. 12 Ma) following the MMCT and drop in global mean geocentric sea level, which resulted in major shifts in shelf processes and stratal architecture.

  PublisherDOI

• Seismic anatomy of Miocene clinoform sequences on the New Jersey (USA) shelf, and implications for sediment transport during base-level rhythms

  Geosphere · 2025-02-13 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract The New Jersey, USA, continental margin has become a natural laboratory for studying sediment dynamics and sequence architecture associated with eustatic rhythms. We collected 564 km2 of ultrahigh-resolution 3-D seismic data in the region of Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 313 to investigate the formation of the shelf and clinoform system during early to middle Miocene time. We identified 22 high-frequency sequences and 76 systems tracts, using a geometric breakdown approach based on changes in the landward and seaward terminations and elevation of clinoform rollovers in successive reflector packages. Predicted petrophysical properties of acoustic impedance, P-wave velocity, density, and clay content show rhythmic patterns that follow the seismic sequence architecture, with landward fining in transgressive deposits and basinward fining in other systems tracts. Similar proportions of lowstand, transgressive, and highstand deposits suggest that sediment accumulated during periods of both rise and fall in relative sea level, with a low proportion of falling-stage deposits (4%), which suggests that forced regression rarely exposed clinoform breakpoints. Maximum dip azimuths for the Miocene section indicate southwestward sediment transport, broadly along strike of the margin. Enhanced sediment accumulation to the southwest caused a 13° anticlockwise rotation in clinoform orientation after the late Oligocene, and this uneven stress load influenced the orientation of contemporary polygonal faults on basinward parts of the clinoforms. In contrast to models that emphasize downslope sediment transport in margin development, we highlight the importance of along-shore advective processes in shaping the New Jersey margin during the Miocene.

  PublisherDOI

• Controls on the Stratigraphic Architecture of the US Atlantic Margin: Processes Forming the Accommodation Space

  Journal of Geophysical Research Solid Earth · 2024-10-01 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Accommodation space governs the spatial and temporal distributions of sediments in continental margins. Mapping the sedimentation patterns, therefore, offers insights into the solid‐Earth processes that shape accommodation space. We assembled an unprecedented amount of seismic and borehole data along the Eastern North American Margin and used it to divide the margin's sedimentary package into eight chronostratigraphic intervals, identifying temporal shifts in depocenters under the continental shelf, slope, and rise. The Jurassic depocenters follow the syn‐rift structure and its thermal subsidence loci. The Long Island Platform is the only margin segment where the early post‐rift sediment thickness matches subsidence predictions from uniform‐stretching models, whereas in Georges Bank Basin (GBB) and Baltimore Canyon Trough (BCT), sediment thickness is 1.5–3 times higher than predicted, pointing to other factors at play. A margin‐wide Jurassic transient shoulder uplift is inferred from the occurrence of stratigraphic onlaps above thinned crust. Unlike the Jurassic, the Cretaceous and Cenozoic depocenters disregard the inherited subsidence pattern. The accommodation space over the shelf and coastal plain during the Cretaceous was affected by regional isostatic compensation of the sedimentary loads accumulated on the shelf and rise. Accommodation space development in the GBB was interrupted during the Cretaceous after the margin crossed the Great Meteor Hotspot track, resulting in a widespread permanent uplift, erosion, and sediment redistribution. The distribution of anomalous Neogene subsidence in the BCT challenges previous suggestions of mantle dynamic control on the accommodation space and favors flexural downwarping of the shelf by sediment accumulation on the rise.

  PublisherDOI

• Re-organization of Pacific overturning circulation across the Miocene Climate Optimum

  Nature Communications · 2024-09-17 · 16 citations

  articleOpen access

  The response of the ocean overturning circulation to global warming remains controversial. Here, we integrate a multiproxy record from International Ocean Discovery Program Site U1490 in the western equatorial Pacific with published data from the Pacific, Southern and Indian Oceans to investigate the evolution of deep water circulation during the Miocene Climate Optimum (MCO) and Middle Miocene Climate Transition (MMCT). We find that the northward export of southern-sourced deep waters was closely tied to high-latitude climate and Antarctic ice cover variations. Global warming during the MCO drove a progressive decrease in carbonate ion concentration and density stratification, shifting the overturning from intermediate to deeper waters. In the western equatorial Pacific, carbonate dissolution was compensated by increased pelagic productivity, resulting in overall elevated carbonate accumulation rates after ~16 Ma. Stepwise global cooling and Antarctic glacial expansion during the MMCT promoted a gradual improvement in carbonate preservation and the initiation of a near-modern Pacific overturning circulation. We infer that changes in the latitudinal thermal gradient and in Southern Ocean zonal wind stress and upper ocean stratification drove radically different modes of deep water formation and overturning across the MCO and MMCT.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Cretaceous sequence stratigraphy of Georges Bank Basin: Implications for carbon storage

  AAPG Bulletin · 2024-11-01 · 3 citations

  article

  ABSTRACT The presence and suitability of carbon storage reservoirs in the Georges Bank Basin (GBB; offshore Massachusetts) is evaluated through the application of sequence stratigraphy and the construction of a static earth model using those interpretations and physical properties measurements. Sequence stratigraphy is applied using well logs and ∼60,000 km (∼37,200 mi) of multichannel seismic profiles to delineate six thick (>100 m [>330 ft]) Lower Cretaceous fluvial-deltaic depositional sequences. Two composite Missisauga sequences (MS2 and MS1; Berriasian to Barremian) comprise the lowermost prospective storage resource that may store 4.2–8.4 Gt (2% and 4% efficiency factors) of supercritical CO2 beneath the confining Naskapi shale. These heterolithic, fluvial sandstones comprise thinner and less laterally expansive sand bodies than the deltaic sandstones within three overlying Logan Canyon sequences (LC3, LC2, and LC1; Aptian to Upper Cenomanian). The Logan Canyon sequences comprise a prospective storage resource of 9.7–19.5 Gt sealed by the overlying Dawson Canyon shale. Combined, these Lower Cretaceous strata represent storage resources of ∼14 to 28 Gt in the GBB. The 38–76 Gt of total reservoir resources in Lower Cretaceous sandstones in the Baltimore Canyon Trough to the south, coupled with a closer proximity to emissions sources and better refinement of reservoir characterization for those strata, renders the GBB an unlikely location for initial adoption of offshore carbon capture and storage (CCS) regionally. However, storage resources in the GBB are of significant value if CCS is to be adopted at a scale impactful to mitigating the effect of anthropogenic emissions on atmospheric CO2 concentrations.

  PublisherDOI

• Preliminary Observations of the 5 April 2024 Mw 4.8 New Jersey Earthquake

  The Seismic Record · 2024-10-01 · 6 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract On 5 April 2024, 10:23 a.m. local time, a moment magnitude 4.8 earthquake struck Tewksbury Township, New Jersey, about 65 km west of New York City. Millions of people from Virginia to Maine and beyond felt the ground shaking, resulting in the largest number (>180,000) of U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) “Did You Feel It?” reports of any earthquake. A team deployed by the Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance Association and the National Institute of Standards and Technology documented structural and nonstructural damage, including substantial damage to a historic masonry building in Lebanon, New Jersey. The USGS National Earthquake Information Center reported a focal depth of about 5 km, consistent with a lack of signal in Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar data. The focal mechanism solution is strike slip with a substantial thrust component. Neither mechanism’s nodal plane is parallel to the primary northeast trend of geologic discontinuities and mapped faults in the region, including the Ramapo fault. However, many of the relocated aftershocks, for which locations were augmented by temporary seismic deployments, form a cluster that parallels the general northeast trend of the faults. The aftershocks lie near the Tewksbury fault, north of the Ramapo fault.

  PublisherDOI

• Sensitivity of modelled passive margin stratigraphy to variations in sea level, sediment supply and subsidence

  Basin Research · 2024-01-01 · 5 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract We produced a 10 Myr synthetic stratigraphic section using a forward stratigraphic model that generates marine deltaic stratigraphy over geological timescales. We recursively fit the model using a Bayesian inversion algorithm to test: (1) if it could be accurately reconstructed; (2) if the parameters used to create it could be recovered; and (3) the sensitivity of the model output to given model parameters and the attendant physical processes. The original synthetic stratigraphic section was produced with cyclical sea‐level variations of 40 and 30 m with 2.4 and 10 Myr periods respectively. Sediment was also supplied cyclically, in 2.4 and 10 Myr cycles with amplitudes of 30 and 80 tons/100 kyr, respectively, varying from a mean of 232 tons/100 kyr. Parameter values were sampled to fit the model using a Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm, resulting in a ±5 m (1σ) variation between the experimental output and the original. Sea level varied by ±7 m (1σ) within the posterior distribution of parameters. As a result, both the 10 Myr and 2.4 Myr sea‐level cycles could be extracted from the original output. The variation in sediment supply was approximately ±38 tons/100 kyr (1σ) and, as a result, only the larger long‐term supply variations could be accurately recovered in refitting the model. The variation in thermal, flexural and total subsidence across those parameter sets is less than ±10 m (1σ). The original section experienced 150 m of total subsidence at the depocentre. Our results demonstrate the distinct and interpretable imprint of sea level and subsidence on continental margin stratigraphy can be quantified. Moreover, we conclude that sea‐level change produces a defined effect on the geometries of stratigraphic architecture, and that techniques applied for the purpose of delineating sea‐level variation from continental margin strata have a well‐founded conceptual basis.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Author response for "Sensitivity of modelled passive margin stratigraphy to variations in sea level, sediment supply and subsidence"

  2024-01-16

  peer-review
  PublisherDOI

• APPLICATION OF SEQUENCE STRATIGRAPHY TO EVALUATE AND QUANTIFY THE CAPACITY OF OFFSHORE CO₂ STORAGE RESERVOIRS IN THE GEORGES BANK BASIN

  Abstracts with programs - Geological Society of America · 2023-01-01

  article
  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Collaborative Research: Long Core Sea Trials

  NSF · $19k · 2006–2008

Frequent coauthors

• Kenneth G. Miller

  Emory and Henry College

  149 shared

• Denise K. Kulhanek

  Kiel University

  106 shared

• Yair Rosenthal

  Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

  100 shared

• Jennifer B. Wurtzel

  Australian National University

  98 shared

• Ann Holbourn

  Kiel University

  98 shared

• Anna Joy Drury

  98 shared

• Samantha C. Bova

  San Diego State University

  97 shared

• Takuya Sagawa

  Kanazawa University

  97 shared

Labs

• Earth and Planetary Science Isotope Laboratory (EPSIL)PI

Education

• Ph.D., Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

  Columbia University

  1981

• B.A., Geology

  Brown University

  1972