by the Department of the Interior in the South Atlantic are presently con- 

 fined to the Blake Plateau and Southeast Georgia Embayment (16). Little 

 information is available for the Hatteras Embayment or Cape Fear Arch. 

 Off the shore of Georgia, the Continental Shelf extends for 80 to 85 miles. 

 The water depth at the top of the Florida-Hatteras Slope is approximately 

 600 feet. The Continental Shelf slopes \iery gently from the edge of the 

 mainland shore to the Florida-Hatteras Slope. From there it drops rapidly 

 to the Blake Plateau, which has been described as a broad platform extend- 

 ing from the tip of the Straits of Florida to Cape Lookout where it merges 

 with the Continental Slope. It is thought that .there are from 8,400 to 

 16,500 feet of sedimentary rocks in the basin under the plateau out to a 

 water depth of 1,800 feet (42). The Southeast Georgia Embayment is a 

 structural feature underlying part of the coastal plain region of Georgia 

 and extending out into the ocean for an unknown distance. Recorded maximum 

 sedimentary thicknesses near the center of the embayment exceeds 5,000 

 feet; offshore near the edge of the Continental Shelf, sedimentary rocks 

 are thought to be more than 10,000 feet thick (17, n. 174). 

 3.2 YIELDS 



There has been no past offshore or onshore production of oil and 

 gas in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia (18, p. 17). Both 

 oil and natural gas are produced from onshore fields in Florida where 

 commercial quantities of petroleum were discovered in 1943. The major 

 producing field in Florida is located at Jay in the northwest part of 

 the state. Six small fields are located in the southwest part of the 

 state, but there are no onshore fields near or adjacent to the South- 

 east Georgia Embayment (19, p. 20). 



12 



