Late Quaternary (Pre-Holocene) Coastal Systems of New Jersey

Halsey, Susan D.; Farrell, Stewart C.; ,

Late Quaternary (Pre-Holocene) Coastal Systems of New Jersey

by Susan D. Halsey, Coastal Resources, Trenton, United States,
Stewart C. Farrell, Coastal Resources, Trenton, United States,

Document Type: Proceeding Paper

Part of: Coastal Sediments

Abstract:

The coastline and the area adjacent to the present shoreline of New Jersey has not been explored as intensely as the same region of neighboring states for pre-Holocene high sea level stillstands. Early work by the NJ State Geological Survey concentrated on the Cape May Formation as the most recent unit attributable to marine transgression. Stratigraphic summaries and bio-stratigraphic additions to the data available were published during the 1960's and 1970's, but no detailed field was undertaken until recently. The work begun in the late 1970's can be grouped into three separate geographic provinces. Nearshore shelf studies, initiated during the New York Bight Study and continued periodically since, provide a series of seismic profiles parallel and perpendicular to the NJ shoreline. Secondly, a combination of geographic analysis of older, predevelopment topographic maps define possible pre-Holocene topography inland of the present NJ barrier island chain and surrounding the larger bays and estuaries, such as the Great Egg Harbor and lower Cape May Peninsula. The third effort is a recently completed program of re-mapping of the southern NJ surficial deposits in a cooperative effort by the NJ Geologic Survey and the U.S. Geological Survey. This and other research can be combined to provide a growing picture of the latest marine transgressions within the Pleistocene Epoch.

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