Cores from marine geologic features in the western Gulf of Maine

Submerged geologic features located in the western Gulf of Maine between Cape Ann, Massachusetts and New Hampshire (fig. 1), were identified from high-resolution seismic-reflection data collected between 1979 and 1980. The features include the following. (1) A pair of end morained formed during the retreat of the Laurentide Ice Sheet from the Gulf of Maine (Oldale, 1985a). (2) A barrier spit and lagoon complex and (3) a paleodelta, both of which formed during a late Wisconsinan to early Holocene low relative sea-level stand (Oldale and others, 1983; Oldale, 1985b). (4) A wave-cut unconformity that was eroded as the sea transgressed to its present position. (5) A surficial sand depost that formed atop the unconformity in middle Holocene time. Vibracores (fig. 2) were taken in 1984 to corroborate the interpretations from the seismic data, to determine the sedimentary texture and structure of the features, to identify the nature of the unconformity, and to obtain material for ¹⁴C dating,