GALVESTON BAY

Cross-section E-E' through Galveston Island and Bolivar Peninsula shows thick barrier island and shoreface sands located within and adjacent to the Trinity River incised valley.

Profiles F-F' and G-G' are representative core transects that illustrate how shoreface ravinement has removed virtually all coastal deposits on the inner shelf. The ravinement surface is marked by offshore marine muds onlapping either Pleistocene deposits (offshore Bolivar Peninsula) or lower shoreface deposits (offshore Galveston Island) and occurs at -7 m to -9 m water depths. With continued sea-level rise and current depths of ravinement, coastal lithosomes will be eroded everywhere except in the incised valley (modified from Cole and Anderson, 1982, Siringan and Anderson, 1993, and Siringan and Anderson, 1994).