The almost enclosed Gulf of Maine was filled with continental ice at the height of the last glaciation and has gradually evolved into the biologically productive body of water of today. Preliminary data suggest that the disappearance of glacial ice from the Gulf of Maine followed a different path than is known from modern glaciers which enter the sea. It formed a topographically buttressed ice shelf, in contact with relatively warm water, producing much glacial-marine sediment. High- resolution seismic profiling and examination of piston cores will test this hypothesis, AMS radiocarbon dates will test indications that an unusually early (18 ka) marine invasion of the Gulf of Maine took place. This research will provide a detailed description of the genesis, stratigraphy and composition of a type of geological strata which may be very common in the geological record.
