INTEGRATING COMPREHENSIVE LANDSCAPE ANALYSIS WITH SUBSURFACE STRATIGRAPHY FOR A RELICT PLIO-PLEISTOCENE TERRANE, LITTLE CONTENTNEA CREEK WATERSHED, NEUSE RIVER BASIN, NORTH CAROLINA

The relict Plio-Pleistocene landscape in the Little Contentnea Creek Watershed of the Neuse River Basin was geomorphically analyzed, divided into landform units, and then subjected to a detailed stratigraphic analysis along several profiles with strategic positions relative to landscape features. The purpose of this exercise was to determine if the relationship between landforms, surficial map units, and shallow aquifers and their confining units was predictable.

Landforms in the watershed include the Surry Scarp, a marine paleoshoreline that formed at a highstand in sea level of 30 m in the early Pleistocene. Landforms in the watershed are grouped into three categories relative to this highstand position. Features that predate it (Sunderland plain) are a plain at +32 m and dune ridges at 32-36+ m. Features contemporaneous with the 30 m highstand are the marine plain at 20-30 m (part of Wicomico plain), shoreline sands (30-32 m), ebb-tidal deltas (27-30 m), intertidal bars and shoals (at 30+m), and estuary flats (at 30 m). Features that postdate this highstand are scarps at 20 m, 16 m, 12 m, 10 m and 7 m that separate plains of fluvial to estuarine origin in the watershed's drainages. The flats at 16-20 m and 12-16 m are estuarine terraces with highstand shorelines at 20 m and 16 m respectively. Fluvial terraces with relict scroll bars occur at 10-12 m and 7-10 m. The modern floodplain postdates all of these features.

Three profiles were chosen to show relationships between landforms, facies and the surficial aquifer system. Cores and gamma logs were acquired from 1300 feet of closely spaced boreholes along these profiles. The cross sections include: 1) an east-west section through the Surry Scarp; 2) a north-south section through a proposed paleo-estuary channel that joins the Surry paleoshoreline in the watershed; and 3) a section through the terraced borders of the Little Contentnea drainage that extends from the interfluves down to the modern flood plain. This abstract presents our preliminary results.