MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — When you think of the word “fossil” what comes to mind? Massive bones of prehistoric predators displayed in museums? Ancient shells of snails found on the rocks in your local creek? Maybe even an insect trapped in the warm orange hue of fossilized amber?
Well, if you live anywhere near the coastline in Horry County, there’s a chance there are fossils just a few feet under you.
Specifically, a fossilized beach.
Just off of 2nd Ave Pier in Myrtle Beach, a very low tide revealed rocks and shells that are almost as old as our planet’s most recent Ice Age, ABC affiliate WPDE reported.
“They’re around 80,000, 100,000 years old, something in that range,” explains Paul Gayes, the Executive Director of the Burroughs and Chapin Center for Marine and Wetland Studies at Coastal Carolina University.
Gayes said these rocky outcroppings can be found pretty much anywhere around the coast, but they’re typically covered by either water or sand.
“The actual modern beach is surprisingly thin,” explained Gayes. “That sand is just a little tiny ribbon that sits on top of older deposits. If you go outside that surf zone, and a little bit deeper, for much of the Grand Strand there is no modern sediment. It’s probably a surprise to people who think the beach is this infinite volume of sand. It’s actually quite thin.”
Most of what you can see outside the surf zone along the sea floor is from eroding fossilized beaches. Right around 20 feet below the water’s surface, you could find even older material that acts as a unique environment for various sea life.
“They form meter-high scarps on the bottom that become rather important for certain kinds of invertebrates. For a large section of those where the ancient material is exposed, it’s considered an essential fish habitat. The hard, rocky substrate that invertebrates can attach to attract certain kinds of fish assemblages and such,” Gayes told WPDE.
These fossil homes are also a way researchers can study the history of sea levels in our area, and not just at Myrtle Beach.
“This kind of beach structure is pretty common,” Gayes explained. “Much of Florida, you’ll see lots of beach rock like this all along the coast. We have a lot of much older deposits here in South Carolina, I mean, we’re talking about the Cretaceous when Dinosaurs were running around. That age deposit is exposed right off the coast, and even along the Intracoastal Waterway. Some areas in the north end of Myrtle Beach you’ll often see a lot of that really old material right at the tide line.”
Though famous Dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus Rex and Triceratops were around in the Cretaceous, don’t expect to find any Dinosaur bones along the beach. However, a different kind of fossil is very commonly eroded out from these fossilized beaches. According to a study from the University of Delaware, 30% of the shells you find on our beaches today are fossils that have fallen out from eroding rocky structures.
A lot of history can also be gleaned from our hidden, old beaches.
“The sea level was lower in the past,” Gayes said. “Fifteen miles out of Murrells Inlet, you can see where the old river valleys had been. When you dive down, you can see 12,500-year-old Cyprus stumps. You can see old intertidal creeks, oyster banks, and now they’re all under 60 feet of water. It’s a changing environment, and that’s going to go on forever.”
According to Gayes, these beaches fossilize from a complicated process where groundwater meets ocean water.
Calcium Carbonate is a chemical found in a lot of things, from rocks, eggshells, and even pearls. That same chemical is what ultimately acts as a cement for fossilized beaches. Groundwater will come through, leach out the Calcium Carbonate, and in certain conditions, will then precipitate “cement” back out, forming the contact that sticks the various grains and minerals together that form a fossilized beach.
This process can be surprisingly quick, too.
“You can go out into the Pacific and find materials, helmets and stuff from the old World War Two storming of some of those islands, that has already been cemented into the beach material,” Gayes said. “It’s referred to as “beach rot” in many places. It’s kind of typical where groundwater from the surface interacts with seawater.”
Despite lasting for thousands and thousands of years though, Gayes says there’s a very real chance that these types of fossils are all temporary.
“It will slowly erode away. There have been patches of it off-shore, all of that has been cut back and it continues to do so,” says Gayes. “If you think about our future, the way the sea continues to come up and the way it’s rising faster, and the changes we’re seeing with increased temperatures in the water, all of these things are causing water levels to go up. And all of these things are forcing that erosion to go back into our coast.”
“The system is so dynamic, there’s a lot of history there. We’ll continue to see things get covered and uncovered,” Gayes explained. “It’s quite a challenge for the state, and the nation for that matter, to learn how to manage that critical habitat for our environment, and the natural resources associated with it. It’s such a key part of our economy, our history, and our way of life, it requires a great deal of attention.”
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