The effects of the Chesapeake Bay impact crater on the geological framework and correlation of hydrogeologic units of the lower York-James Peninsula, Virginia

Abstract

About 35 million years ago, a large comet or meteorite slammed into the western Atlantic Ocean on a shallow shelf, creating the Chesapeake Bay impact crater. The crater is now covered by Virginia's central to outer Coastal Plain sediments and

Ground water in freshwater-saltwater environments of the Atlantic Coast

“…Through the collection and analysis of deep sedimentary cores, geophysical data, and fossil assemblages, geologists have identified a large impact crater formed by a meteorite near what is now the mouth of Chesapeake Bay (figs. 16 and 17) (Poag and others, 1994;Poag, 1998Poag, , 1999Poag, , and 2000Powars and Bruce, 1999;Powars, 2000). The crater is three times larger than any other U.S. crater and is the sixth largest crater known on Earth.…”

Water Intrusion in the Chesapeake Bay Region: Is It Caused by Climate-Induced Sea Level Rise?

“…These include bedrock dissolution, drainage and degradation of organic soils, settling of fill and disturbed soils [14], and volcanic disturbances and tectonic motion related to continental crust movements. Settling of impact crater sediments associated with the Chesapeake Bay meteor crater is an unlikely cause of current land subsidence in the region because the meteor struck about 35 million years ago [15]. The passage of time since the meteor impact has been so great that, even if it was conservatively assumed that subsidence rates had stayed constant during the past 1 million years rather than decreasing, a rate of 1 mm/yr.…”

Hydrogeologic framework and ground-water flow in the Fall Zone of Virginia

“…Digital model analysis of the entire Coastal Plain aquifer system in Virginia (Harsh and Laczniak, 1990) represented the hydrogeologic framework within the Fall Zone differently than has been done in this study. In addition, other changes needed to the Virginia Coastal Plain model have been cited (McFarland, 1998), including more complete and (or) up-to-date information on 1. the amounts, distributions, and effects of changing withdrawals, including those located near and beyond model boundaries such as the Potomac River and the saltwater interface; and 2. the hydrogeologic framework within poorly characterized northern and central parts of the Coastal Plain in Virginia, and associated with a recently discovered meteorite or comet impact structure near the mouth of Chesapeake Bay (Powars and Bruce, 1999).…”