Group members can hike together or alone through the trails of the State Park. As hiking through the trails, group members will hike to the beaches of the nearby Chesepeake Bay for fossil collections.
A section of Calvert Cliffs lies immediately north of the end of the trail, but cliff collapses forced the Department of Natural Resources to close the beach along the cliffs in the 1980s as a safety measure. As a result, collecting is restricted to a small beach area in the area where the service road ends.
Calvert Cliffs extend south from the
area of Chesapeake Beach in northern Calvert County to Drum Point at the
southern end of the county. Three geologic formations of Miocene age (approximately
6 to 20 million years old) are exposed in Calvert Cliffs.
The layers of sediment are inclined slightly to the south, so that progressively younger beds are exposed from north to south along the cliffs. The oldest is the Calvert Formation on the northern end, progressing to the younger Choptank Formation and finally the youngest St. Marys Formation in the southern part.
History
of Calvert Cliffs
The Calvert cliffs were formed between
10-25 million years ago (during the Miocene Epoch), when the Chesapeake
Bay was a shallow, warm sea that covered all of southern Maryland. This
sea was bordered by low sandy shores and cypress swamps. Over the course
of millions of years, the margins of the sea fluctuated gently and land
surfaces were periodically exposed and eroded. Streams and rivers formed
new channels which altered the topography and resulted in the present-day
configuration of the Chesapeake Bay. The Cliffs of Calvert, which were
once sea bottom, now stand up to 115 feet above the water.
As wind and water continually erode the cliffs, at a rate of up to 2.75 feet per year, the fossil remains of animals from the ancient sea floor are exposed. These fossil deposits are regarded as the most extensive assemblage of Miocene deposits in the eastern United States.
While using the tools provided, group members can collect different fossils and use the Fossil Identification Guide to identify them. Some of the fossils that have been commonly found are well-preserved fossil shells, sharks teeth, small pieces of coral, and the dental plates of rays. Occasionally, a threeinch tooth from a great white shark is found, but the smaller teeth are by far the most common.
