CHAPTER VII

COASTAL MUD FLATS

(FIGS. 28 AND 29)

Of frequent occurrence along the Atlantic Coast of the United States are low mud flats which are practically at sea level and which are covered with water at times of high tide. Where these tracts are exposed to the air during ebb tide for so short a time that plants have not taken root and where the surface material is fine-grained and soft, the tracts are known as mud flats. In the part of the peninsula between Delaware and Chesapeake Bays belonging to the state of Virginia which is called the Eastern Shore a low barrier beach of sand has formed on the ocean side several miles off shore, and the space between this and the mainland is occupied by mud flats, broad, shallow lagoons, and an intricate maze of interlacing channels and winding, branching, interlocking, vermicular streams.

The mud flats are exposed for a short time during low tide, and, as the surface of the water here rises and falls with the tide more than 4 feet, with a maximum fluctuation considerably greater, large volumes of water are continually flowing backward and forward over the flats. As the tide rises, strong currents of sea water set in through the inlets, flow up the main channels and through the thoroughfares, and gradually find their way into the countless small channels and out of them over the broad level stretches of soft mud. As the tide falls, this action is reversed, and the broad sheet of water finds its way by devious paths through the winding watercourses out to sea. The larger channels extend considerably below the surface at times of highest water and may be quite deep even at times of low water. They are, perhaps, stream courses excavated before the region was drowned. Many of the smaller channels also have the general form characteristic of normal stream channels, although others show peculiarities not common to subaerial drainage. The origin of these submarine and tidal features is not well understood, but the photographs of them show their form and furnish some basis for a study of them.

The photographs reproduced as Figures 28 and 29 were taken northeast of Cape Charles, Virginia, in the summer of 1920 at low tide. The light-colored ribbon-like bands represent water-filled channels; and the darker-colored areas, either wet mud exposed to the air or mud slightly submerged. However, photographs taken under certain conditions of light may show the exact line between the exposed and the drowned portions of a land surface.