Estuarine Meanders in the Chesapeake Bay Area

Abstract

M AORPHOLOGISTS have accumulated a wealth of observations and conclusions on the development of coasts and shore lines and on the sculpturing work of rivers above tide level, but the landform that owes its configuration to the combined effects of tidal action and river flow, the estuary, has been somewhat neglected-perhaps because its origin has seemed too fluviatile to coastal morphologists and too marine to those concerned with river work. This may explain why the particular geomorphological form discussed here has escaped scrutiny for so long a time, in spite of its prominence and wide occurrence. Past investigators' of meandering tidal streams were mostly concerned with the question whether rivers at tide level can or cannot meander actively; they did not study the form differences between river meanders above tide and meanders shaped with the participation of periodically reversing tidal currents. Numerous estuaries around Chesapeake Bay possess meanders of the latter origin. A check of topographic maps revealed their presence also in other parts of the Atlantic Coastal Plain of the United States, and even on coasts of other continents. These meanders are sufficiently different2 from other meander forms, and at the same time sufficiently frequent, to be classified as representatives of a new meander type, the estuarine meander. The present paper attempts to describe the major characteristics of this meander type.