Chesapeake Bay Geology and Sea Level Rise
The Chesapeake Bay is still growing. The water levels are rising roughly 6 inches per century. 18,000 years ago, the Atlantic was a much smaller ocean because so much water was still trapped in the glaciers and ice sheets. The Susquehanna and James rivers flowed to the edge of the current continental shelf. The river valleys that were drowned, as the ocean rose roughly 300 feet (100 meters) after the last Ice Age, are still evident as channels in the sea floor today. The two tunnels of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel are buried in these two channels.
Links
Chesapeake Bay/Tidewater Region
Geography of Virginia
