From Curray's (1965) eustatic sea level data, the rate of sea level 

 rise was about 0.83 meter (2.7 feet) per century during the first 12,000 

 years of this period, then slowed to about 0.27 meter (0.9 foot) per cen- 

 tury from 7,000 to 3,000 years Before Present (B.P.) when the present sea 

 level was reached. Subsequent fluctuations at that level or continued 

 slow rise may have occurred but most evidence is on a local or regional 

 scale. 



Dated marine peats from two ICONS cores (56 and 57) off Cape Fear 

 provide local control for the transgression of the inner shelf in the 

 study region because they lie very near its seaward limits. These cores 

 are close together and probably penetrated the same peat deposit. The 

 peat in core 56, which lies 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) below the shelf floor 

 and 24.5 meters (80 feet) below present MLW, has a radiocarbon age of 

 10,000 ± 300 years B.P.; the peat in core 57, which lies 4.9 meters (16.1 

 feet) below the shelf floor and 22.9 meters (75 feet) below present MLW, 

 has a radiocarbon age of 10,200 + 140 years B.P. Thus, the transgression 

 of the inner shelf from the depth of the peats in cores 56 and 57 took 

 about 7,000 years. These samples plot considerably above the eustatic 

 sea level curves reported by several authors; however, they show rela- 

 tively good agreement with Kraft's (1976) curve based on samples from the 

 Delaware shelf and coast, and with the trend of other peat samples ob- 

 tained in ICONS cores of the Atlantic inner shelf (Field, et al., in 

 preparation, 1979). 



The present character and distribution of the shelf surficial sedi- 

 ments are probably largely a product of processes in the shallow marine 

 environment near the leading edge of the encroaching Holocene sea with 

 subsequent additions and local modification by modern shelf and nearshore 

 processes . 



b. Inner Shelf Topography . The main topographic elements of the 

 inner shelf are the shelf floor, the adjacent shoreface slope (defined 

 here as a submarine topographic feature which extends from the shore 

 seaward to where there is a perceptible flattening of the slope to the 

 more gentle gradient of the shelf floor) , and the cape-associated shoal 

 complexes off Capes Lookout and Fear. None of these features appear to 

 be wholly modem although all are probably undergoing some modification 

 as a result of present shelf processes. The most pronounced effects are 

 on the upper shoreface and the cape-associated shoals. Little modifica- 

 tion of the shelf floor topography is apparent as a result of modem 

 processes. 



The most prominent positive elements of the shelf topography are the 

 massive shoal complexes extending seaward from Capes Lookout and Fear. 

 Swift, et al . (1972) believe these shoal complexes initially formed 

 during the Holocene transgression as cape-associated shoals which were 

 sequentially created and abandoned as the cape retreated across the shelf 

 floor, and that subsequently these shoals were and continue to be main- 

 tained and locally modified by waves and currents, especially during 

 storms (see also Hunt, Swift, and Palmer, 1977). 



