ABSTRACT
The Chesapeake Bay estuarine system was formed by the most recent rise in sea level which began approximately 15,000 to 18,000 years ago with the retreat of the glaciers at the end of the Wisconsin glaciation. Sea level at that time was approximately 125 m below its present level. As sea level rose it advanced across the previously exposed continental shelf, reaching the present mouth of the Chesapeake Bay basin less than 10,000 years ago. As the sea rose it drowned the ancestral river valley system which had been carved during the previous low stand and transformed the riverine system into an estuarine system. The Chesapeake Bay estuarine system is shown in Figure 1.
