Calvert Formation
| Calvert Cliffs State Park | |
| Rickard's Cliffes | |
| Maryland State Park | |
 The park's namesake cliffs
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| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| State | Maryland |
| County | Calvert |
| Elevation | 112 ft (34 m) |
| Coordinates | 38°24′10″N 76°25′19″W / 38.40278°N 76.42194°WCoordinates: 38°24′10″N 76°25′19″W / 38.40278°N 76.42194°W |
| Area | 1,311 acres (531 ha) |
| - Wildlands | 1,079 acres (437 ha) |
| Established | 1960s |
| Management | Maryland Department of Natural Resources |
| IUCN category | V - Protected Landscape/Seascape |
  Location in Maryland
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| Website: Calvert Cliffs State Park | |
Calvert Cliffs State Park is a public recreation area in Lusby, Calvert County, Maryland, that protects a portion of cliffs that extend for 24 miles along the eastern flank of the Calvert Peninsula on the west side of Chesapeake Bay from Chesapeake Beach southward to Drum Point. The state park is known for the abundance of mainly Middle Miocene sub-epoch fossils that can be found on the shoreline.
The park contains the type locality site of the Early to Middle Miocene Calvert Formation. These rocks are the sediment from a coastal ocean that covered the area during that time. The age of the formation is (19-)18–15(-14) million years ago (Ma), i.e. it extends essentially over the Hemingfordian stage. This formation occurs in Maryland and neighboring Virginia.
In addition, rocks of the younger Choptank and the St. Marys Formations are exposed here. This makes Calvert Cliffs State Park extremely interesting for its paleoclimatology and paleontology, because the accessible strata provide a good record of the Middle Miocene Climate Transition and document a minor mass extinction event — the "Middle Miocene disruption." Fossil collecting and "rockhounding" are permitted on the beach; the cliffs are closed due the dangers of erosion.
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Wikipedia