Anatomy of a barrier platform: outer barrier lagoon, southern Delmarva Peninsula, Virginia Article

Oertel, GF, Kearney, MS, Leatherman, SP et al. (1989). Anatomy of a barrier platform: outer barrier lagoon, southern Delmarva Peninsula, Virginia . MARINE GEOLOGY, 88(3-4), 303-318. 10.1016/0025-3227(89)90103-5

cited authors

  • Oertel, GF; Kearney, MS; Leatherman, SP; Woo, H

authors

abstract

  • A 7-9m thick prism of fine-grained sediment occurs below the floor of barrier lagoons of the southern Delmarva Peninsula. These fine-grained sediments provide a platform for retreating barriers to migrate across. Initially, the complete fine-grained sedimentary column was believed to represent the infilling of the barrier lagoon during the Holocene transgression. Marine microfauna confirm that deposition of mud occurred in a coastal/estuarine environment. However, X-ray radiographic and palynological analyses suggest shallow-water deposition associated with a cool-climate boreal forest. Much of the lagoonal mud behind the barriers is apparently pre-Holocene, and primordial Holocene lagoons were apparently very shallow. Hence, along the southern Delmarva Peninsula, landward-migrating barrier islands retreated across topographic highs composed of silt and clay. © 1989.

publication date

  • January 1, 1989

published in

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

start page

  • 303

end page

  • 318

volume

  • 88

issue

  • 3-4