ECOLOGY OF BUZZARDS BAY: An Estuarine Profile 



19 



Buzzards Bay and its surrounding uplands rep- 

 resent a relatively young coastal feature in New 

 England. While the basic structure of the system was 

 created by glacial transport and subsequent ero- 

 sion of sediments during glacial melting and retreat, 

 secondary processes of relative sea-level rise, wave 

 and tidal erosion, and sorting and transport of sedi- 

 ments continue to transform both the land-sea mar- 

 gin and the subaerial portion of the bay. 



2.1. Formation 



Buzzards Bay was formed by processes asso- 

 ciated with the Laurentide Ice Sheet which, cen- 

 tered on Labrador and Hudson Bay during the final 



or Wisconsin Stage of the Pleistocene Epoch, 

 started some 50,000-70,000 years B.P. Before the 

 Cape Cod region was glaciated, there was an ex- 

 tensive coastal plain consisting of Tertiary and Cre- 

 taceous rocks that extended seaward to the ap- 

 proximate location of present day Nantucket, 

 Martha's Vineyard, and Block Island. The land sur- 

 face graded downwards toward the ancient shore- 

 line (Hough 1940). Pleistocene glaciation, specifi- 

 cally the Buzzards Bay, Cape Cod Bay, and South 

 Channel lobes (Fig. 2.1), modified this surface and 

 to a lesser extent the adjacent and underlying New 

 England Oldland. The advance and retreat of these 

 three lobes, formed because of variations in the 

 speed and movement of the edge of the Laurentide 



New Hampshire 



Atlantic Ocean 



-ishers lsland\ A 



U\ \ (*S Block 

 ^ \Q Island 



.eJ^Montauk Point 



Nantucket 

 Island 



-teX** ' 



Miles 



Fig. 2.1. Southern New England showing the directions of flow of ice of the 

 Wisconsin Stage (by arrows) and the two positions of ice standstill (dashed 

 lines). From Strahler (1966). 



