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Marine Biology

William & Mary

1990

Chesapeake Bay

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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

A 100-Year Sediment Budget For Chesapeake Bay, Carl H. Hobbs Iii, Jeffery P. Halka, Randall T. Kerhin, Michael J. Carron Nov 1990

A 100-Year Sediment Budget For Chesapeake Bay, Carl H. Hobbs Iii, Jeffery P. Halka, Randall T. Kerhin, Michael J. Carron

Reports

Chesapeake Bay is a depositional basin that is filling from both ends and the sides. During the century ended in the mid-1950s between 1.0 x 109 and 2.92 x 109 metric tons of sediment accumulated in the bay. The bay's largest tributary, the Susquehanna River, is a major source of fine-grained sediments; its coarser load being trapped by dams. The continental shelf is the largest single source of sediment for the basin. A massive quantity of sand, perhaps as much of forty percent of the net deposition, enters the bay between the Virginia capes and works its way tens of …