SC - Low tide reveals approx. 80,000-year-old fossil along Myrtle Beach coast
HORRY COUNTY, S.C. (WPDE) — 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.
"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 said.
