C. Wylie Poag 1998 <p>During the late Eocene, the formerly quiescent geological regime of the Virginia Coastal Plain was dramatically transformed when a bolide struck in the vicinity of the Delmarva Peninsula, and produced the following principal consequences:</p><ul><li>The bolide carved a roughly circular crater twice the size of the state of Rhode Island (~6400 km²⁾, and nearly as deep as the Grand Canyon (1.3 km deep).</li><li>The excavation truncated all existing ground water aquifers in the impact area by gouging ~4300 km³<span>&nbsp;</span>of rock from the upper lithosphere, including Proterozoic and Paleozoic crystalline basement rocks and Middle Jurassic to upper Eocene sedimentary rocks.</li><li>A structural and topographic low formed over the crater.</li><li>The impact crater may have predetermined the present-day location of Chesapeake Bay.</li><li>A porous breccia lens, 600-1200 m thick, replaced local aquifers, resulting in ground water ~1.5 times saltier than normal sea water.</li><li>Long-term differential compaction and subsidence of the breccia lens spawned extensive fault systems in the area, which are potential hazards for local population centers in the Chesapeake Bay area.</li></ul> application/pdf 10.3133/7000063 en U.S. Geological Survey The Chesapeake Bay bolide: Modern consequences of an ancient cataclysm reports