Abstract The E5 transect extends southeastward from the Cumberland Plateau across the Appalachian orogen, the Atlantic Coastal Plain, Continental Shelf and Slope, and the Blake Plateau Basin; it is a transect through the Precambrian-early Paleozoic and Mesozoic-Tertiary continental margins of North America. The transect consists primarily of a 100-km-wide geologic strip map, a cross section, and supporting geophysical data. The cross section is based on surface geology, surface and subsurface data from Coastal Plain and offshore drill holes, shipboard and aeromagnetic data, and gravity and seismic reflection data, including the ADCOH and COCORP southern Appalachians lines. Elements of the map and cross section include: (1) the Appalachian foreland fold-thrust belt and western Blue Ridge Late Proterozoic-Paleozoic continental margin; (2) the eastern Blue Ridge-Chauga belt-Inner Piedmont oceanic-continental fragment terrane; (3) the volcanicplutonic Carolina terrane containing the middle to late Paleozoic high-grade Kiokee belt; and (4) a major geophysical ly defined terrane beneath the Coastal Plain. Three Paleozoic sutures may be present along the section line: the Hayesville thrust, the Inner Piedmont-Carolina terrane boundary (Taconic or Acadian suture?), and an eastern boundary of the Carolina terrane (Alleghanian? suture) in the subsurface beneath the Coastal Plain. The modern continental margin consists of the terrestrial clastics-filled Triassic-Jurassic basins and offshore marine Jurassic- Cretaceous clastic-carbonate bank succession overlain by younger Cretaceous and Tertiary sediments. Above the Late Cretaceous onshore unconformity lie Cenozoic sediments that represent seaward prograding of the shelf-slope, truncated by Miocene to recent wave abrasion and currents.

Abstract DNAG Transect E-5. Part of GSA's DNAG Continent-Ocean Transect Series, this transect contains all or most of the following: free-air gravity and magnetic anomaly profiles, heat flow measurements, geologic cross section with no vertical exaggeration, multi-channel seismic reflection profiles, tectonic kindred cross section with vertical exaggeration, geologic map, stratigraphic diagram, and an index map. All transects are on a scale of 1:500,000.

Abstract Subtidal shoals composed of Pleistocene and early to middle Holocene deposits, on the north-central South Central inner shelf, have been modified by wave and tidal processes since being flooded during the Holocene sea-level rise. The shoals, which extend seaward up to 20 km, are composed of a wide variety of sediment types, including silt- to gravel-size terrigenous clastic sediments, abundant shell material, and peat. Typically, the shoals terminate on their seaward ends at abrupt dropoffs, with relief commonly exceeding 14 m over a distance of 0.5 km. Three skoals, located off the Santee/Pee Dee Delta, Cape Romain, and the entrance to Bulls Bay, were studied by means of vibracores, scuba observations, box cores, bottom-sediment samples, and extensive bottom fathometer profiles. The shoal complex seaward of the modern Santee/Pee Dee Delta is the largest of the three studied, most probably because (at a lower sea-level stand) the Santee and Pee Dee Rivers were joined, forming a large deltaic deposit. Shore-parallel scarps on the shoals correlate well with updip stratigraphic units and most probably give evidence of pauses during the most recent sea-level rise. The shoal seaward of the modern Cape Romain cuspate foreland contains stacked packages of progradational mid- to lower shoreface (barrier-island) deposits. This progradational, downdrift-trending shoreline sequence is backed by a 6- to 7-km-wide back-barrier region and was formed during a pause or a drop of the most recent sea-level rise. All evidence indicates that the present transgressive Cape Romain barrier islands have migrated landward en mass away from the submerged shoal. The Bulls Bay shoal, which probably originated as an abandoned delta lobe of the ancestral Santee River, shows the highest degree of modification and is characterized by abundant ridge topography and high shell content. The reworked ridges have lengths of 1 to 2 km and elevations of 2 to 4 m. Shoal surfaces show evidence of significant wave and current modifications, such as abundant bedforms and erosional scarps. Southwesterly-facing scarps were cut presumably by storms (hurricanes). However, bathymetry, sediment-distribution patterns, bed-forms and gross morphology of the shoals indicate thai northeasterly waves dominate normal shelf processes.

Abstract The Atlantic Coastal Plain south of the glacial limit stretches 2,200 km from southeastern New York and northern New Jersey to the Florida Keys, and is as much as 320 km wide from the Piedmont to the continental slope (Figs. 1 and 2). It is divided into three subdivisions/belts that parallel the Atlantic Coast: the Upper (Inner), Middle, and Lower (Outer) Coastal Plains (Fig. 1). The subdivisions commonly are separated by escarpments and each subdivision has distinctive topography and surficial stratigraphy. The Upper Coastal Plain is underlain by Cretaceous and Tertiary sediments that unconformably onlap Mesozoic to Precambrian rocks of the Piedmont Section; it is not discussed here. It commonly is separated from the Middle Coastal Plain by an escarpment. This topographic boundary is the Orangeburg Scarp in North and South Carolina and northern Georgia, the Chippenham and Thornburg Scarps in Virginia, and unnamed scarps in most of Georgia and northern Florida. These ancient scarps are much eroded and dissected. The Middle and Lower Coastal Plains have a stair-stepped topography comprising discontinuous, somewhat dissected plains (called terraces) at various levels that are separated by scarps (Table 1). The scarps vary in height and commonly, particularly the older ones, are obscured by mass-wasting and eolian deposits. The terrace steps decrease in altitude seaward and toward major transverse streams. The coastwise terraces are believed to be former marine shore/nearshore platforms, but they merge into or are cut by fluvial terraces along the transverse rivers. The Middle

Abstract The Orangeburg Scarp is located along and adjacent to I-26, Orangeburg, South Carolina, St. Matthews and Orangeburg 15-minute quadrangles and South Carolina, Department of Highways and Public Transportation, General Highway Map, Orangeburg County (Fig. 1).