the six or more PlioceneC?) and Pleistocene cycles of emergence and 

 submergence, with maximum submergent sea levels near +45 feet (14 meters) 

 (Oaks and Coch, 1973) . The Sandbridge Formation, youngest Pleistocene 

 (Oaks and Coch, 1973) , was observed by the authors after storms in the 

 intertidal zone at 44th Street, Virginia Beach. Other aspects of coastal 

 plain geology are discussed by Sanford (1912) , Wentworth (1930) , 

 Cederstrom (1941), Richards (1950), and the early literature is sum- 

 marized by Ruble (1965). Harrison, et al. (1965) presents evidence for 

 a late Pleistocene uplift in the area. Pleistocene sea level changes 

 are discussed by Milliman and Emery (1968) and Oaks and Coch (1963). 

 Holocene geomorphology and stratigraphy at the Chesapeake Bay entrance 

 are detailed by Meisburger (1972) and Nelson (1972), who discussed the 

 relationships between the ancestral Pleistocene Susquehanna River and 

 the present baymouth configuration. Meisburger (1972) indicates that 

 the present gross bottom morphology in the bay entrance is largely due 

 to Holocene sedimentation (estimated at 1.37 X 10^ cubic meters) and 

 bears little relation to the buried Pleistocene topography. 



The Holocene evolution of a part of the Hatteras barrier island 

 chain has been discussed by Pierce and Colquhoun (1970a, 1970b) . 

 Based on subsurface core information from Duck to Cape Lookout, 

 North Carolina, they suggest that this present barrier complex has 

 evolved from a combination of primary barrier landward retreat and the 

 development of secondary barriers by spit elongation. White (1966) 

 has suggested that these capes formed initially from Pleistocene river 

 deltas. 



A definitive wave climate study summarizing the shelf geomorphology 

 of the Chesapeake Bight part of the Virginian Sea (i.e.. Cape Henry to 

 Cape Hatteras) and the complex relationships between the shelf geomorpho- 

 logy and the ocean surface wave climate over the shelf and along the 

 shoreline, is presented in Goldsmith, Farrell, and Goldsmith (1974a). 



This latter study clearly showed the important influence of the 

 Virginia Beach Massif (Figs. 3 and 4) on the wave climate of the 

 southeast Virginia coastal compartment. The Virginia Beach Massif is 

 an extensive, shallow, relatively level-topped topographic high, between 

 the depth contours of 18.3 and 21.9 meters and occurs between the relic 

 Susquehanna Valley and the Virginia Beach Valley. (The term "massif" 

 was applied to this feature by Swift, et al., (1972) because the original 

 subaerial mountain massifs in France are also flanked by river valleys.) 

 This imposing large-scale relic feature, of hypothesized interfluve 

 origin, contains a superimposed irregular ridge and swale bathymetry, 

 which is delineated by the depth contour of 18.3 meters. The Virginia 

 Beach Valley, flanked to the northeast by the Virginia Beach ridges on 

 the topographic high and to the southeast by the False Cape ridges, is 

 suggestive of a series of relic ebb tidal deltas formed as the sea level 



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