Search USGS⌕ Search

Geology topics

C. Wylie Poag

Publications and source records attributed to C. Wylie Poag.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
USGS2012

Foraminiferal repopulation of the late Eocene Chesapeake Bay impact crater

The Chickahominy Formation is the initial postimpact deposit in the 85km-diameter Chesapeake Bay impact crater, which is centered under the town of Cape Charles, Virginia, USA. The formation comprises dominantly microfossil-rich, silty, marine clay, which accumulated during the final ~1.6myr of late Eocene time. At cored sites, the Chickahominy Formation is 16.8-93.7m thick, and fills a series of small troughs and subbasins, which subdivide the larger Chickahominy basin. Nine coreholes drilled through the Chickahominy Formation (five inside the crater, two near the crater margin, and two ~3km outside the crater) record the stratigraphic and paleoecologic succession of 301 indigenous species of benthic foraminifera, as well as associated planktonic foraminifera and bolboformids. Two hundred twenty of these benthic species are described herein, and illustrated with scanning electron photomicrographs. Absence of key planktonic foraminiferal and Bolboforma species in early Chickahominy sediments indicates that detrimental effects of the impact also disturbed the upper oceanic water column for at least 80-100kyr postimpact. After an average of ~73kyr of stressed, rapidly fluctuating paleoenvironments, which were destabilized by after-effects of the impact, most of the cored Chickahominy subbasins maintained stable, nutrient-rich, low-oxygen bottom waters and interstitial microhabitats for the remaining ~1.3myr of late Eocene time.

Maryl;Virginia↗
USGS2005

Early to middle Jurassic salt in Baltimore Canyon trough

A pervasive, moderately deep (5-6 s two-way traveltime), high-amplitude reflection is traced on multichannel seismic sections over an approximately 7500 km² area of Baltimore Canyon Trough. The layer associated with the reflection is about 25 km wide, about 60 m thick in the center, and thins monotonically laterally, though asymmetrically, at the edges. Geophysical characteristics are compatible with an interpretation of this negative-polarity reflector as a salt lens deposited on the top of a synrift evaporite sequence. However, alternative interpretations of the layer as gas-saturated sediments, an overpressured shale, or a weathered igneous intrusion are also worthy of consideration. Geophysical analyses were made on three wavelet- and true-amplitude processed multichannel seismic dip lines. The lens-shaped layer demarked by the reflection has a velocity of 4.4 km/s; the lens lies within strata having velocities of 5.3 to 5.7 km/s. A trough marking the onset of the lens has an amplitude that is 10 to 20 db greater than reflections from the encasing layers and an apparent reflection coefficient of -0.24. Using amplitude versus offset analysis methods, we determined that observed reflection coefficients, though variable, decrease consistently with respect to increasing offset. Linear inversion yields a low density, about 2.2 g/cc . Integration of one of the true-amplitude-processed lines and one-dimensional modeling of the layer provide data on the impedance contrast and interference patterns that further reinforce the salt lens interpretation. The thin, horizontal salt lens was probably deposited or precipitated during the Jurassic in a shallow, narrow (peripheral) rift basin, as rifting progressed down the North Atlantic margin. Unlike thicker deposits in other areas that deformed and flowed, often into diapir structures, this thin lens has remained relatively undisturbed since deposition.

Baltimore Canyon trough↗
USGS2005

Paleontology of the upper Eocene to quaternary postimpact section in the USGS-NASA Langley core, Hampton, Virginia

The USGS-NASA Langley corehole was drilled in 2000 in Hampton, Va. The core serves as a benchmark for the study of calcareous nannofossils, dinoflagellates, diatoms and silico flagellates, mollusks, ostracodes, planktonic foraminifera and bolboformids, and vertebrate remains in the upper Eocene, Oligocene, Miocene, and Pliocene sediments in southeastern Virginia. These sediments were deposited after the comet or asteroid impact that produced the Chesapeake Bay impact structure. The Chickahominy Formation was deposited rapidly in outer neritic to upper bathyal marine environments during the last 2 million years of the late Eocene. The Drummonds Corner beds are newly recognized in the Langley core. These beds appear to represent shallower water or more nearshore deposition than the underlying Chickahominy deposits. Paleontology indicates an age in the later part of the early Oligocene, with a sharp floral and faunal break between the Drummonds Corner beds and the underlying Chickahominy Formation. Late Oligocene sedimentation is represented by the Old Church Formation. The record of early and middle Miocene deposition in the Langley core is incomplete. The Calvert Formation records brief episodes of deposition in three members, which are separated by unconformities and are called the informal Newport News beds, the Plum Point Member, and the Calvert Beach Member. A second episode of rapid deposition at the Langley site is preserved as the upper Miocene St. Marys and Eastover Formations. The Eastover is overlain unconformably by the Yorktown Formation, which is both late early and early late Pliocene. The highest unit, the Tabb Formation (Pleistocene), was not studied paleontologically. Continued movement along faults and fractures of the crater and nearby region may have enhanced the contributions of older material into the various units filling the Chesapeake Bay impact crater, as suggested by the conspicuous reworking of microfossils in many of the samples from the upper Eocene and younger units in the USGS-NASA Langley core.

Virginia↗
USGS2004

The Chesapeake Bay Crater: Geology and geophysics of a Late Eocene submarine impact structure

The list of impact craters documented on Earth is short. Only about 165 genuine impact structures have been identified to date (Table 1.1). Even so, the number is steadily increasing at the rate of ∼3–5 per year (Grieve et al. 1995; Earth Impact Database at http://www.unb.ca/passc/Impact/Database/). In stark contrast, most other rocky planets and satellites of our solar system are pockmarked by thousands to hundreds of thousands of impact features (Beatty et al. 1999). Nevertheless, impact specialists acknowledge that Earth, too, has undergone billions of years of bolide bombardment (Melosh 1989; Schoenberg et al. 2002). The most intense bombardment, however, took place during Earth’s earliest history (∼3.8–4 Ga; Ryder 1990; Cohen et al. 2000; Ryder et al. 2000). Traces of most terrestrial impacts have been completely erased or strongly altered by the dynamic processes of a thick atmosphere, deep ocean, and mobile crust, a combination unique to our planet. Planetary geologists now recognize that processes associated with bolide impacts are fundamental to planetary accretion and surface modification (Melosh 1989; Peucker-Ehrenbrink and Schmitz 2001). Incoming meteorites may have been primary sources for Earth’s water, and, perhaps, even organic life as we know it (Thomas et al. 1997; Kring 2000). There is little doubt that impacts played a major role in the evolution of Earth’s biota (Ryder et al. 1996; Hart 1996).

Maryland; Virginia↗
USGS2003

Late Eocene impacts: Geologic record, correlation, and paleoenvironmental consequences

We present new magnetostratigraphic and stable isotopic ( 𝜹 18 C, 𝜹 13 C carb ) data to help improve correlations among three late Eocene impact craters and their inferred breccia and ejecta deposits. Our analyses also shed light on potential global environmental consequences attributable to the impacts. The new data come from a continuously cored interval of the subsurface Chickahominy Formation, which lies conformably above the Chesapeake Bay impact crater in southeastern Virginia. The new magnetostratigraphic data indicate that the Chesapeake Bay impact took place in Chron C16n. 2n, the same magnetochron that encompasses the late Eocene ejecta layer at Massignano, Italy. This correlation places both the Chesapeake Bay impact and the Massignano ejecta at ~35.6 Ma, and resolves a previous miscorrelation between these two sites based on planktonic foraminifera and calcareous nannofossils. The new magnetostratigraphic correlations also suggest that the published magnetostratigraphic framework for ejecta-bearing late Eocene strata ar ODP Site 689B (Maud Rise) is incorrect, due to an incomplete section. New 𝜹 18 C data (single species of benthic foraminifera) from the same Chickahominy section ar Chesapeake Bay indicate that successional intervals of warm oceanic bottom-water may be characteristic of the late Eocene. We infer that the warm intervals correlate with successive episodes of greenhouse warming, triggered in part by a comer shower, which produced the Chesapeake Bay, Toms Canyon, Popigai, and presumably additional (as yet undiscovered) late Eocene impact craters. We also demonstrate that a marked negative execution of 𝜹 13 C carb persists through the upper half of the Chickahominy Formation. This excursion, also recorded at Massigno, at Bath Cliff, Barbados, and at other widespread localities in the world ocean, may be additional evidence of global-scale, long-term environmental disturbances related to the bolide impacts. As such, this 𝜹 13 C signal may be useful for global subdivision of the late Eocene stratigraphic record.

Book chapter↗
USGS2002

Ancient impact structures on modern continental shelves: The Chesapeake Bay, Montagnais, and Toms Canyon craters, Atlantic margin of North America

Three ancient impact craters (Chesapeake Bay - 35.7 Ma; Toms Canyon - 35.7 Ma; Montagnais - 51 Ma) and one multiring impact basin (Chicxulub - 65 Ma) are currently known to be buried beneath modern continental shelves. All occur on the passive Atlantic margin of North America in regions extensively explored by seismic reflection surveys in the search for oil and gas reserves. We limit our discussion herein to the three youngest structures. These craters were created by submarine impacts, which produced many structural and morphological features similar in construction, composition, and variability to those documented in well-preserved subaerial and planetary impact craters. The subcircular Chesapeake Bay (diameter 85 km) and ovate Montagnais (diameter 45-50 km) structures display outer-rim scarps, annular troughs, peak rings, inner basins, and central peaks similar to those incorporated in the widely cited conceptual model of complex impact craters. These craters differ in several respects from the model, however. For example, the Montagnais crater lacks a raised lip on the outer rim, the Chesapeake Bay crater displays only small remnants of a raised lip, and both craters contain an unusually thick body of impact breccia. The subtriangular Toms Canyon crater (diameter 20-22 km), on the other hand, contains none of the internal features of a complex crater, nor is it typical of a simple crater. It displays a prominent raised lip on the outer rim, but the lip is present only on the western side of the crater. In addition, each of these craters contains some distinct features, which are not present in one or both of the others. For example, the central peak at Montagnais rises well above the elevation of the outer rim, whereas at Chesapeake Bay, the outer rim is higher than the central peak. The floor of the Toms Canyon crater is marked by parallel deep troughs and linear ridges formed of sedimentary rocks, whereas at Chesapeake Bay, the crater floor contains concentric faults and compression ridges formed in rocks of the crystalline basement. The Chesapeake Bay crater is distinguished further by its cluster of at least 23 adjacent secondary craters. The North American tektite strewn field, a widespread deposit of distal ejecta, is thought to be derived from the Chesapeake Bay impact, perhaps with a small contribution from the Toms Canyon impact. No ejecta field is known to be associated with the Montagnais impact. No immediate major extinction event is directly linked to any of these three impacts. There is evidence, however, that the Chesapeake Bay and Toms Canyon impacts helped initiate a long-term pulse of warm global climate, whose eventual dissipation coincided with an early Oligocene mass extinction event, 2 Ma after the impacts.

Deep-Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Ocea↗
USGS1998

The Chesapeake Bay bolide: Modern consequences of an ancient cataclysm

During the late Eocene, the formerly quiescent geological regime of the Virginia Coastal Plain was dramatically transformed when a bolide struck in the vicinity of the Delmarva Peninsula, and produced the following principal consequences: The bolide carved a roughly circular crater twice the size of the state of Rhode Island (~6400 km 2) , and nearly as deep as the Grand Canyon (1.3 km deep). The excavation truncated all existing ground water aquifers in the impact area by gouging ~4300 km 3 of rock from the upper lithosphere, including Proterozoic and Paleozoic crystalline basement rocks and Middle Jurassic to upper Eocene sedimentary rocks. A structural and topographic low formed over the crater. The impact crater may have predetermined the present-day location of Chesapeake Bay. A porous breccia lens, 600-1200 m thick, replaced local aquifers, resulting in ground water ~1.5 times saltier than normal sea water. Long-term differential compaction and subsidence of the breccia lens spawned extensive fault systems in the area, which are potential hazards for local population centers in the Chesapeake Bay area.

Chesapeake Bay↗
USGS1998

The Chesapeake Bay bolide impact: a new view of coastal plain evolution

A spectacular geological event took place on the Atlantic margin of North America about 35 million years ago in the late part of the Eocene Epoch. Sea level was unusually high everywhere on Earth, and the ancient shoreline of the Virginia region was somewhere in the vicinity of where Richmond is today (fig. 1). Tropical rain forests covered the slopes of the Appalachians. To the east of a narrow coastal plain, a broad, lime (calcium carbonate)- covered continental shelf lay beneath the ocean. Suddenly, with an intense flash of light, that tranquil scene was transformed into a hellish cauldron of mass destruction. From the far reaches of space, a bolide (comet or asteroid), 3-5 kilometers in diameter, swooped through the Earth's atmosphere and blasted an enormous crater into the continental shelf. The crater is now approximately 200 km southeast of Washington, D.C., and is buried 300-500 meters beneath the southern part of Chesapeake Bay and the peninsulas of southeastern Virginia (fig. 1). The entire bolide event, from initial impact to the termination of breccia deposition, lasted only a few hours or days. The crater was then buried by additional sedimentary beds, which accumulated during the following 35 million years.

Fact Sheet↗
USGS1997

The Chesapeake Bay bolide impact: A convulsive event in Atlantic Coastal Plain evolution

Until recently, Cenozoic evolution of the Atlantic Coastal Plain has been viewed as a subcyclical continuum of deposition and erosion. Marine transgressions alternated with regressions on a slowly subsiding passive continental margin, their orderly succession modified mainly by isostatic adjustments, occasional Appalachian tectonism, and paleoclimatic change. This passive scenario was dramatically transformed in the late Eocene, however, by a bolide impact on the inner continental shelf. The resultant crater is now buried 400–500 m beneath lower Chesapeake Bay, its surrounding peninsulas, and the continental shelf east of Delmarva Peninsula. This convulsive event, and the giant tsunami it engendered, fundamentally changed the regional geological framework and depositional regime of the Virginia Coastal Plain, and produced the following principal consequences. (1) The impact excavated a roughly circular crater, twice the size of Rhode Island (∼6400 km 2 ) and nearly as deep as the Grand Canyon (∼1.3 km deep). (2) The excavation truncated all existing ground-water aquifers in the target area by gouging ∼4300 km 3 of rock from the upper lithosphere, including Proterozoic and Paleozoic crystalline basement rocks and Middle Jurassic to upper Eocene sedimentary rocks. (3) Synimpact depositional processes, including ejecta fallback, massive crater-wall failure, water-column collapse, and tsunami backwash, filled the crater with a porous breccia lens, 600–1200 m thick, at a phenomenal rate of ∼1200 m/hr. The breccia lens replaced the truncated ground-water aquifers with a single 4300 km 3 reservoir, characterized by ground water ∼1.5 times saltier than normal sea water (chlorinities as high as 25,700 mg/l). (4) A structural and topographic low, created by differential subsidence of the compacting breccia, persisted over the crater at least through the Pleistocene. In the depression are preserved postimpact marine lithofacies and biofacies (upper Eocene, lower Oligocene, lower Miocene) not known elsewhere in the Virginia Coastal Plain. (5) Long-term differential compaction and subsidence of the breccia lens spawned extensive fault systems in the postimpact strata. Many of these faults appear to reach the bay floor, and may be potential hazards for motion-sensitive structures in population centers around Chesapeake Bay. Near-surface fracturing and faulting generated by the impact shock may extend as far as 90 km from the crater rim. (6) Having never completely filled with postimpact sediments, the sea-floor depression over the crater appears to have predetermined the location of Chesapeake Bay. (7) As large impact craters are principal sources for some of the world's precious metals, it is reasonable to expect that metal-enriched sills, dikes, and melt sheets are present in the inner basin of the crater. In addition to these specific consequences, the crater and the convulsive event that produced it, have widespread implications for traditional interpretations of certain structural and depositional features of the Atlantic Coastal Plain, particularly in southeastern Virginia.

Chesapeake Bay↗
USGS1995

Stratigraphic and palaeoenvironmental summary of the south-east Georgia embayment: a correlation of exploratory wells

A Continental Offshore Stratigraphic Test (COST) well and six exploratory wells have been drilled in the south-east Georgia embayment. The oldest rocks penetrated are weakly metamorphosed Lower Ordovician quartz arenites and Silurian shales and argillites in the Transco 1005-1 well and Upper Devonian argillites in the COST GE-1 well. These marine strata, which are equivalent to the Tippecanoe sequence in Florida, underlie the post-rift unconformity and represent part of a disjunct fragment of Gondwana that was sutured to the North American craton during the late Palaeozoic Alleghanian orogeny. The Palaeozoic strata are unconformably overlain by interbedded non-marine Jurassic (Bajocian and younger) sandstones and shales and marginal marine Lower Cretaceous sandstones, calcareous shales and carbonates, which contain scattered beds of coal and evaporite. Together, these rocks are stratigraphically equivalent to the onshore Fort Pierce and Cotton Valley(?) Formations and rocks of the Lower Cretaceous Comanchean Provincial Series. The abundance of carbonates and evaporites in this interval, which reflects marine influences within the embayment, increases upwards, eastwards and southwards. The Upper Cretaceous part of the section is composed mainly of neritic calcareous shales and shaley limestones stratigraphically equivalent to the primarily marginal marine facies of the onshore Atkinson, Cape Fear and Middendorf Formations and Black Creek Group, and to limestones and shales of the Lawson Limestone and Peedee Formations. Cenozoic strata are primarily semiconsolidated marine carbonates. Palaeocene to middle Eocene strata are commonly cherty; middle Miocene to Pliocene strata are massive and locally phosphatic and glauconitic; Quaternary sediments are dominated by unconsolidated carbonate sands. The effects of eustatic changes and shifts in the palaeocirculation are recorded in the Upper Cretaceous and Tertiary strata.

Georgia↗
USGS1995

Upper Eocene impactites of the U.S. East Coast; depositional origins, biostratigraphic framework, and correlation

Similar successions of planktonic foraminifera, calcareous nannofossils, and bolboformids document coeval deposition of the Exmore impact breccia (Virginia Coastal Plain) and an impact ejecta layer at DSDP Site 612 (New Jersey Continental Slope). Both impactites accumulated in the late Eocene during the early part of biochrons P15 (planktonic foraminifera) and NP 19-20 (calcareous nannofossils), approximately 35.5-35.2 Ma. The impactite at Site 612 is part of an allochthonous debriite, 22.8 cm thick, displaced from the Toms Canyon impact crater, 40 km north-northwest of Site 612. The Exmore breccia, possibly 2000 m thick, is composed of debris displaced from the Chesapeake Bay impact crater, located in southeastern Virginia, 330 km southwest of Site 612.

U.S. East Coast↗
USGS1994

Meteoroid mayhem in Ole Virginny: Source of the North American tektite strewn field

New seismic reflection data from Chesapeake Bay reveal a buried, 85-km-wide, 1.5-2.0-km-deep, peak-ring impact crater, carved through upper Eocene to Lower Cretaceous sedimentary strata and into underlying pre-Mesozoic crystalline basement rocks. A polymictic, late Eocene impact breccia, composed mainly of locally derived sedimentary debris (determined from four continuous cores), surrounds and partly fills the crater. Structural and sedimentary characteristics of the Chesapeake Bay crater closely resemble those of the Miocene Ries peakring crater in southern Germany. We speculate that the Chesapeake Bay crater is the source of the North American tektite strewn field.

Geology↗
USGS1993

Allostratigraphy of the U.S. middle Atlantic continental margin; characteristics, distribution, and depositional history of principal unconformity-bounded upper Cretaceous and Cenozoic sedimentary units

Publication of Volumes 93 and 95 ('The New Jersey Transect') of the Deep Sea Drilling Project's Initial Reports completed a major phase of geological and geophysical research along the middle segment of the U. S. Atlantic continental margin. Relying heavily on data from these and related published records, we have integrated outcrop, borehole, and seismic-reflection data from this large area (500,000 km^2 ) to define the regional allostratigraphic framework for Upper Cretaceous and Cenozoic sedimentary rocks. The framework consists of 12 alloformations, which record the Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic depositional history of the contiguous Baltimore Canyon trough (including its onshore margin) and Hatteras basin (northern part). We propose stratotype sections for each alloformation and present a regional allostratigraphic reference section, which crosses these basins from the inner edge of the coastal plain to the inner edge of the abyssal plain. Selected supplementary reference sections on the coastal plain allow observation of the alloformations and their bounding unconformities in outcrop. Our analyses show that sediment supply and its initial dispersal on the middle segment of the U. S. Atlantic margin have been governed, in large part, by hinterland tectonism and subsequently have been modified by paleoclimate, sea-level changes, and oceanic current systems. Notable events in the Late Cretaceous to Holocene sedimentary evolution of this margin include (1) development of continental-rise depocenters in the northern part of the Hatteras basin during the Late Cretaceous; (2) the appear ance of a dual shelf-edge system, a marked decline in siliciclastic sediment accumulation rates, and widespread acceleration of carbonate production during high sea levels of the Paleogene; (3) rapid deposition and progradation of thick terrigenous delta complexes and development of abyssal depocenters during the middle Miocene to Quaternary interval; and (4) deep incision of the shelf edge by submarine canyons, especially during the Pleistocene. Massive downslope gravity flows have dominated both the depositional and erosional history of the middle segment of the U. S. Atlantic Continental Slope and Rise during most of the last 84 million years. The importance of periodic widespread erosion is recorded by well-documented unconformities, many of which can be traced from coastal-plain outcrops to coreholes on the continental slope and lower continental rise. These unconformities form the boundaries of the 12 allostratigraphic units we formally propose herein. Seven of the unconformities correlate with supercycle boundaries (sequence boundaries) that characterize the Exxon sequence-stratigraphy model.

Professional Paper↗
USGS1992

Deep Sea Drilling Project Site 612 bolide event: New evidence of a late Eocene impact-wave deposit and a possible impact site, US east coast

A remarkable >60-m-thick, upward-fining, polymictic, marine boulder bed is distributed over >15 000 km 2 beneath Chesapeake Bay and the surrounding Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain and inner continental shelf. The wide varieties of clast lithologies and microfossil assemblages were derived from at least seven known Cretaceous, Paleocene, and Eocene stratigraphic units. The supporting pebbly matrix contains variably mixed assemblages of microfossils along with trace quantities of impact ejecta. The youngest microfossils in the boulder bed are of early-late Eocene age. On the basis of its unusual characteristics and its stratigraphic equivalent to a layer of impact ejecta at Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) Site 612. It is postulated that this boulder bed was formed by a powerful bolide-generated wave train that scoured the ancient inner shelf and coastal plain of southeastern Virginia.

Geology↗
USGS1990

Early Cretaceous shelf-edge deltas of the Baltimore Canyon Trough: principal sources for sediment gravity deposits of the northern Hatteras Basin

We present evidence that the principal sources for Early Cretaceous (Berriasian-Valanginian) gravity-flow deposits of the northern Hatteras Basin were three large shelf-edge deltas located along the outer margin of the Baltimore Canyon Trough, ∼ 100 km southeast of Cape Charles, Virginia, Ocean City, Maryland, and Long Branch, New Jersey. Sedimentary detritus from the central Appalachian highlands and the Maryland-Virginia coastal plain was transported across the Early Cretaceous continental shelf to form the Cape Charles and Ocean City deltas, whereas deposits of the Long Branch delta came chiefly from the Adirondack and New England highlands. Each delta supplied sediment gravity flows to large slope aprons and submarine-fan complexes on the Early Cretaceous continental slope and rise. The most conspicuous distributary of sediment on the Early Cretaceous continental rise extends 500 km basinward from the Ocean City delta, where its distal deposits were cored at Deep Sea Drilling Project Site 603.

Hatteras Basin↗
USGS1987

Cenozoic unconformities and depositional supersequences of North Atlantic continental margins: Testing the Vail model

Integrated outcrop, borehole, and seismic reflection stratigraphy from the U.S. and Irish margins of the North Atlantic basin reveals a framework of Cenozoic depositional supersequences and interregional unconformities that resembles the Vail depositional model. Paleo-bathymetric and paleoceanographic analyses of associated microfossil assemblages indicate a genetic link between the depositional framework and the relative position of sea level.

Geology↗