FEC for participation on IODP Leg 313

Understanding the history, cause, and impact of sea level fluctuations is a compelling goal of Earth system research. Not only are worldwide effects of encroaching shorelines evident today-the rate of this change is clearly increasing. Whereas global sea level rise during the previous century was ~1.8 mm/y (Church and White, 2006), today that rate is ~3.25 mm/y (Cazenave et al., 2009), in part due to anthropogenic influences (Barnett, 1990). Furthermore, in many coastal regions the rate is still higher because of the additional effect of local subsidence. The geologic record shows that global sea level has fluctuated by well over 100 m (summaries in Donovan et al., 1979) at rates as high as 20-40 mm/y (Fairbanks, 1989; Stanford et al., 2006). The New Jersey margin in general is an ideal location to investigate the Cenozoic history (last ~50 million years) of sea-level change and its relationship to sequence stratigraphy for several reasons: -,Rapid depositional rates. - Tectonic stability. - Well-preserved, cosmopolitan fossils suitable for age control characterize the sediments of this margin throughout the time interval of interest. - There exists a large set of seismic, well log, and borehole data with which to frame the general objectives and choose appropriate drill sites.