The results of an integrated study comprising litho- and biostratigraphic investigations, uranium-series coral dating, amino acid racemization in molluscs, and paleomagnetic measurements are compared to ascertain relative and absolute ages of Pleistocene deposits of the Atlantic Coastal Plain in North and South Carolina. Four depositional events are inferred for South Carolina and two for North Carolina by all methods. The data suggest that there are four Pleistocene units containing corals that have been dated at about 100,000 yr, 200,000 yr, 450,000 yr, and over 1,000,000 yr. Some conflicts exist between the different methods regarding the correlation of the younger of these depositional events between Charleston and Myrtle Beach. Lack of good uranium-series dates for the younger material at Myrtle Beach makes the correlation with the deposits at Charleston more difficult.

A diverse flora has been discovered in a dark clay lens in upland gravel in southern Maryland near Brandywine. More than 49 taxa have been identified in the assemblage, which includes leaves, seeds, fruits, pollen, and a Taxodium (bald cypress) trunk. The vegetation is dominated by deciduous trees and vines. Four taxa are now absent from North America but survive elsewhere; one is extinct. A late Miocene age and warm-temperate climate are inferred from the flora. The clay lens probably represents a cutoff distributary in the extensive braided stream system that covered the area and is unique in Maryland. Similar dark clays have been described from Miocene sands and gravels in New Jersey. The Brandywine flora is the first direct evidence of the Miocene age of part of the fluvial upland deposits of Maryland. On the basis of the age inferred from the flora, the Brandywine deposit is correlated with the St. Marys Formation or the Eastover Formation, which are upper Miocene shelly marine units south and southeast Of Brandywine.

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We use Sr-isotopic age estimates to date siliciclastic, carbonate, and mixed siliciclastic-carbonate Oligocene and Miocene sequences for the New Jersey Coastal Plain and Florida Peninsula and to correlate sequence boundaries with the deep-sea δ 18 O record and the inferred eustatic record of Exxon. The New Jersey onshore Oligocene to lower Miocene sequences correlate reasonably well with the Florida Miocene sequences. However, the majority of middle Miocene sequences mapped in New Jersey are missing from central Florida. The age of Oligocene to Miocene sequence boundaries determined in continuous boreholes from New Jersey, Alabama, and Florida show excellent correlation with deep-sea δ 18 O increases, which are inferred glacioeustatic lowerings. This is strong confirmation that global sea-level change is a primary control on the timing of Oligocene to Miocene sequence boundaries for the coastal plain sections studied here.Whereas global sea level has a significant influence on coastal plain sequences, there are major differences in the preservation of sequences within the same depositional basin (e.g., Salisbury Embayment) and between basins (e.g., Florida basins vs. Salisbury Embayment). These intra-and interbasinal differences must be ascribed to noneustatic processes such as tectonics or differential erosion. Tectonic mechanisms include faulting of crustal blocks, mobile basins with evolving arches and depocenters, local flexural subsidence, or differential subsidence caused by sediment loading.