Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Morphostatic Long-Term Hypsometric Analysis Of Coastal Bay Environments: Hog Island Bay, Virginia, Kathleen Marie Overman

OES Theses and Dissertations

Sea level has been rising at a variable rate since the end of the last glaciation approximately 18,000 years ago. As the transgressing sea inundates the shore areas a series of landform state changes occur in coastal regions. One such change of state in a coastal paleo-river channel is from an estuary into a coastal lagoon. At large temporal intervals (thousands of years) the hypsometry of a coastal lagoon varies as a result of sea level rise due to these changes of state. Using a morphostatic technique, the time period in which an estuary transforms into a coastal lagoon can …