Abstract We describe sedimentation on the storm-dominated, microtidal, continental shelf and slope of the eastern US passive continental margin between the Hudson and Wilmington canyons. Sediments here recorded sea-level changes over the past 100 myr and provide a classic example of the interplay among eustasy, tectonism and sedimentation. Long-term margin evolution reflects changes in morphology from a Late Cretaceous–Eocene ramp to Oligocene and younger prograding clinothem geometries, a transition found on several other margins. Deltaic systems influenced Cretaceous and Miocene sedimentation, but, in general, the Maastrichtian–Palaeogene shelf was starved of sediment. Pre-Pleistocene sequences follow a repetitive model, with fining- and coarsening-upward successions associated with transgressions and regressions, respectively. Pleistocene–Holocene sequences are generally quite thin (<20 m per sequence) and discontinuous beneath the modern shelf, reflecting starved sedimentation under high rates of eustatic change and low rates of subsidence. However, Pleistocene sequences can attain great thickness (hundreds of metres) beneath the outermost shelf and continental slope. Holocene sedimentation on the inner shelf reflects transgression, decelerating from rates of approximately 3–4 to around 2 mm a −1 from 5 to 2 ka. Modern shelf sedimentation primarily reflects palimpsest sand sheets plastered and reworked into geostrophically controlled nearshore and shelf shore-oblique sand ridges, and does not provide a good analogue for pre-Pleistocene deposition. Supplementary material: References used in the comparison of all dates for New Jersey localities in Figure 3.8 are available at http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/SUP18749 .

Abstract Understanding eustatic (global sea-level) changes and their effects on the geological record is an important but difficult task because eustatic effects are complexly intertwined with basin subsidence and changes in sediment supply. Led by Peter Vail, researchers at EPR reconstructed a eustatic history by applying sequence stratigraphy to a global array of proprietary seismic profiles, industry wells, and outcrops. This EPR eustatic record has been controversial owing to methodological concerns and reliance on largely unpublished data. The Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) has focussed on drilling the New Jersey, Bahamas, and Australian margins for sea-level studies and has accomplished the following: Validated a transect approach of drilling passive continental margins and carbonate platforms (onshore, shelf, slope); Tested and validated the assumption that the primary cause of impedance contrasts producing seismic reflections on continental margins are stratal surfaces including unconformities; Proved that the ages of sequence boundaries on margins can be determined to better than ±0.5 m.y. and provided a chronology of eustatic lowering for the past 100 m.y.; Achieved orbital-scale (perhaps suborbital) stratigraphic resolution on continental slopes and carbonate platforms; Showed that siliciclastic and carbonate margins yield correlatable and in some cases comparable records of sea-level change; Evaluated the sedimentary response of both tropical and cool-water carbonate platforms to eustatic changes; Begun to constrain the amplitude and cause of eustatic change for both the Iceahouse World of the past 42 m.y. and the Greenhouse World of 250-42 Ma, as outlined below.