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Central Atlantic Coastal Plain - A Summary of the Geological Evolution of Chesapeake Bay, Eastern United States
Colman, Steven M. Halka, Jeffrey P. Hobbs, C.
Colman, Steven M.
Halka, Jeffrey P.
Hobbs, C.
Abstract
The seaward margin of the U.S. Atlantic Coastal Plain has fluctuated through time, from near the Fall Line to near the edge of the present Outer Continental Shelf, owing to changes in relative sea level. The strata that underlie the Coastal Plain were deposited in environments that ranged from fully terrestrial to fully marine. Estuarine environments are critical components of the Coastal Plain; they represent the interface, otherwise known as the shoreline, between the marine and terrestrial depositional systems. The Quaternary evolution of estuaries has important implications for both documenting the history of sea-level changes and interpreting ancient coastal-plain strata. In this paper, we briefly summarize the Quaternary history of the Chesapeake Bay, the largest of the many Coastal Plain estuaries on the Atlantic coast. This summary is based on recent syntheses of a wide variety of data (Colman and others, 1988, 1990; Colman and Mixon, 1988) on the history and evolution of the bay.
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1992
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United States Goverment Printing Office
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Virginia Institute of Marine Science