Fish Tacos - Calvert Cliffs State Park EarthCache
Fish Tacos - Calvert Cliffs State Park
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Abundant Miocene Fossils located along the cliff face and on the beach. Calvert Cliffs is a state park and has a $5.00 donation for entry. Park hours are from sunrise to sunset daily. DO NOT DIG IN THE CLIFF!! There are plenty of fossils lying on the beach.
The Calvert Cliffs on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay in Calvert County are justly famous as a fossil collecting area. The fossiliferous deposits belong to the Chesapeake Group of Miocene age geological strata in the Atlantic Coastal Plain region. These deposits are exposed in cliffs up to 100 feet high between Chesapeake Beach and Drum Point and constitute the most complete section of Miocene deposits in the eastern United States.
The Chesapeake Group is divided into three formations. The oldest, the Calvert Formation, is composed of diatomaceous earth and dark sandy clays and marl. It is overlain by the yellowish sand and greenish clay and marl of the Choptank formation. The youngest deposits belong to the St. Marys Formation, which, as exposed at Little Cove Point, consists of bluish sandy clay and fine sandstone. The silty and sandy content of the Miocene deposits in Maryland was derived from the erosion of older Coastal Plain deposits and crystalline rocks of the Piedmont region. The calcareous deposits are organic in origin.
At the base of the Calvert Formation are varying thicknesses of gray to white diatomaceous earth which formed from the siliceous tests (coverings) of myriad microscopic aquatic plants called diatoms. In the deposits above the diatomaceous earth is a unique assemblage of fossils. Representatives of nearly every animal phylum have been identified here. Of the 624 species identified, 408 are of Mollusca.
Excerpt taken from writings by Jeanne D. McLennan (1973) on the website (visit link)
To get credit you must send me an e-mail detailing at least five different types of fossils that you have found along with a picture of you with one of them and the off shore "structure" in the background.
UPDATE: I am a sand collector and need sand from this location. I will send three unregistered, trackable geocoins to the first person who sends me a 1 quart freezer bag full of the BLACK sand FROM THIS LOCATION. Send me a private message for more information. Thanks!
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