Late Oligocene transgression of middle Atlantic Coastal Plain

The subsurface Piney Point Formation of the coastal plain of Maryland, Delaware, and New Jersey contains planktonic foraminifera of late Oligocene age. The transgressive Piney Point Formation was deposited in inner to middle shelf environments on an eroded Eocene surface. The disconformity that separates the Piney Point from the Eocene formations below resulted from a major lowering of global sea level in early Oligocene time. This eustatic regression correlates with severe climatic changes noted elsewhere in the geologic record of this time.