of water; the peat sample was retrieved from 1.7 meters (5.6 feet) below 

 the sea floor, for a total subsea elevation of -10.8 meters below sea 

 level. The sample was age-dated by Isotopes, Inc. (Lab No. 1-7441) and 

 a C lh age of 5,765 ± 105 years before present (B.P.) obtained. The top 

 of core 13 is a gray, fine- to medium-grained, clean sand extending from 

 the top down to about 1.2 meters (3.8 feet). This sand unit is massive 

 (structureless) , contains no macrofauna, and has a gradational lower con- 

 tact characterized by alternating layers of silt and fine sand. Between 

 -1.2 and -1.8 meters (-3.8 and -6 feet), the sediment is black, slightly 

 silty clay with some thin <3-centimeter (<0.1 foot) layers of silt and a 

 9-centimeter (0.3 foot) layer of sand at -1.5 meters. Sediment between 

 1.7 and 1.8 meters (5.5 and 6 feet) down in the core was suitably enriched 

 in organic carbon for C 14 dating. From the base of this layer to the 

 bottom of the core, sediments were predominantly gray-brown, slightly 

 silty, very fine sand. 



Core 51 was obtained from the shoreface just south of Ocean City 

 Inlet in about 7.6 meters of water (see Fig. 23 for location). The 

 organic material retrieved for dating lies 2.1 meters (7.0 feet) below 

 the sea floor, for a total depth of 9.7 meters (32 feet) below sea level. 

 The C 1 ** age date for this sample (1-7438) is 32,730 ± 1,650 years B.P., 

 a marked contrast to that obtained for core 13. Weigle (1974) reported 

 two peats beneath Ocean City and Assateague Island that lie at about the 

 same depth and bracket the position of core 51. The peat beneath 

 Assateague State Park (elevation of -8.2 meters or -27 feet) yielded a 

 C 11+ age date of about 31,000 years. The sample from Ocean City was 

 recovered from a depth of 9.7 meters below sea level, and has a radio- 

 carbon age date greater than 27,000 and less than 40,000 with an 

 uncorrected direct reading of 33,000 years. 



Age and elevation for the two peats recovered in this study and for 

 those reported by Sheridan, Dill, and Kraft (1974) and Weigle (1974) are 

 plotted in Figure 28. The sea level curves are from Curray (1965) and 

 Milliman and Emery (1968) . Data points show good agreement with- the 

 curve of Milliman and Emery, which is constructed from Atlantic shelf 

 data. The peaty samples recovered offshore show the presence of preserved 

 lagoonal-estuarine deposits of both mid-Holocene and late Pleistocene 

 (mid-Wisconsin age) in the shallow subsurface. Other investigations of 

 inner shelf subsurface sediments have reported similar age relationship 

 patterns. Field (1974) discussed the presence of Holocene lagoonal peats 

 and late Pleistocene strandline deposits off of Cape Canaveral, Florida; 

 dates and position of the samples also showed good agreement with the 

 Milliman and Emery (1968) sea level curve. In a study area similar to 

 this one, 11 peats obtained by coring and boring techniques just offshore 

 of southern New Jersey were reported by Stahl , Kozan, and Swift (1974). 

 These materials range in age from 6,685 to 29,320 years B.P., and most 

 dates cluster around the mid-Holocene and late Pleistocene dates of this 

 study. 



d. Vertical Relationships of Sediments . As evidenced by the distri- 

 bution of major lithologies at different depths in Figures 24 to 27 and 



65 



