Review of Recent Studies on Marine Pleistocene of Atlantic Coastal Plain--New Jersey to Georgia: ABSTRACT

Abstract

A review of recent work on the marine Pleistocene of the Atlantic coastal plain shows that more than 50 formation and physiographic names have been used. An attempt is made to correlate some of these. There is good physiographic and paleontologic evidence of a Sangamon high sea level at about 28 and possibly 42 ft. No higher Pleistocene shorelines have been demonstrated conclusively in Maryland, Delaware, or New Jersey; the higher Pleistocene deposits probably are of alluvial origin. There is physiographic evidence of a 100-ft shoreline in Virginia (Windsor = Elberon Formation), and there is physiographic and paleontologic evidence of such a shoreline in South Carolina and Georgia. This shoreline has been referred to the Wicomico Formation and is tentatively regarded as o Yarmouth age. The terraces above the 100-ft contour are probably nonmarine, and may be of Tertiary age. The old idea that the Atlantic coastal plain has been very stable during Pleistocene time and that the shorelines reflect eustatic changes in sea level is questioned. Warping and Holocene submergence have been indicated for New Jersey, and the work of various geologists suggests that along the southeastern coast, the eustatic fluctuations of the sea may have been superimposed on a tectonically rising coast. There is evidence of a mid-Wisconsin high stand of the sea, but whether the presence of the Silver Bluff and Princess Anne shorelines above sea level has been caused by a mid-Wisconsin sea level higher than the present, or whether tectonic movement has taken place, is not determined. There is no evidence of a Holocene stand of the sea higher than that of today. End_of_Article - Last_Page 2043------------