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The eastern section of the Santa Barbara Basin is characterized by a morphologic and structural high, known as Mid-Channel trend or Twelve-Mile Reef. The Mid-Channel trend exposes Pliocene to Pleistocene units (M. Kamerling, UC Santa Barbara, pers. comm. 2000) and has been interpreted as an anticline that is bound by eastsoutheast-westnorthwest trending faults of the Oak Ridge fault system (Kamerling et al., 1998).Its westernmost extension is covered by the Goleta slide that extends from the shelf break along the 100 m contour down to the 570 m depth contour (Greene et al., in preparation). The anticline plunges to the west and appears to dive beneath the Goleta slide.
The Mid-Channel trend is characterized by fault scarps, sea stacks, and pockmarks. Pockmarks on the western segment of the Mid-Channel trend are aligned parallel to the eastsoutheast-westnorthwest structural grain suggesting a structural control of pockmark formation.
Santa Barbara Anticline perspective view from the southeast
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