DESCRIPTION OF CHESAPEAKE BAY REGION 



The Chesapeake Bay area as shown on the accompanying maps including 

 the tidewater counties of Maryland, Virginia, and Delaware covers an 

 area of about 100 by 200 miles or about 20,000 square miles. This area 

 is divided as follows (Jenkins, 1971): 



Square Miles 



Maryland 



6800 



Virginia 



6700 



Delaware 



2100 



Chesapeake Bay and 





tributaries 



4400 



Total 20000 



The name Chesapeake is derived from its original Indian name, and 

 literal interpretations vary from "Great Waters" to "Mother of Waters", 

 all refer to its immense size (Shands and Mathes, 1972), and, in fact, 

 Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary on the East Coast, and with its 

 tributaries it is considered by some scientists to be the greatest 

 estuarine system in the world. Four major rivers and 50 large tributaries 

 drain into Chesapeake Bay from headwaters in New York, Pennsylvania, 

 West Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. The shoreline 

 (particularly the western edge) is irregularly digitated by the tidal 

 river estuaries. The tidal shore line is about 4,600 miles in length, 

 of which 3,400 are miles in Maryland and 1,200 miles in Virginia (Corps, 

 1970). 



The Bay has a drainage basin of 74,000 square miles an area 

 larger than all of New England. The Susquehanna River (largest river 

 in the eastern U. S.) contributes 49 percent of the annual freshwater 

 runoff of the entire Bay, and 87 percent of that north of the mouth of 

 the Potomac. The Potomac River estuary contributes about 18 percent of 

 the total freshwater inflow into the Bay. The annual contribution by 

 the other western rivers are: James - 16 percent; Rappahannock - 4 

 percent; York - 2 percent; and others - 4 percent. The eastern rivers 

 (Choptank, Nanticoke and Wicomico) contribute only 7 percent of the 

 total runoff (Saila, 1973). 



The mean tidal fluctuation in Chesapeake Bay is small, generally 

 between one and two feet. Saline water intrusion is highest along the 

 eastern side of the estuary due to the influence of the Coriolis force. 

 Salinities range from 35 parts per thousand inside the mouth of the 

 bay to near zero at the north end of the bay and at the heads of embay- 

 ments tributary to the bay. Spring floods and the relatively dry fall 



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