Principles of Marine Level Correlation

IN the summer of 193I the writer undertook, with the support of the American Geographical Society, the Carnegie Institution, and Columbia University, a reconnaissance study of marine terraces and other real or supposed elevated shore features from Rhode Island down the Atlantic coast to Florida and around the Gulf coast to Texas. No attempt was made to examine all supposed marine forms now found above sea level along this extended belt of coast, but many of the best-known features were examined, often with the aid of and in company with those who had previously given them detailed study. Only a brief summary of results is presented here. For a somewhat fuller statement the reader is referred to the forthcoming Comptes Rendus of the International Geographical Congress held at Paris in I931. A detailed discussion of the whole problem is in preparation for publication at a later date. The objects of the investigation were three in number: I. To discover the cause or causes of the widely divergent views now held with regard to marine level correlation in eastern North America. II. To establish, if possible, some general principles of shore-line correlation which might help toward the solution of this difficult problem. III. To give, if feasible, an answer to the question as to whether the ancient marine levels of the region investigated are horizontal or inclined

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