INVESTIGATION OF FORMER TIDELANDS IN LYNN, MASSACHUSETTS

A trenching and coring study was conducted within a 0.05 km2 parking l ot area in Lynn, Massachusetts, to define the depositional setting of the underlying filled tidelands. Two stratigraphic sections running th e length of the property and roughly perpendicular to the shoreline we re constructed from 15 trenches (2.0 to 4.0 m deep) and 13 vibracores taken at the base of the trenches to a maximum depth of 9.6 m. A typic al stratigraphic section of the autochthonous sediments in the western portion of the project area consisted of a Pleistocene basement overl ain by tidal flat and/or channel fill deposits, which in turn were top ped by low marsh and/or high marsh peat. Toward the bay shoreline, tid al flat sediments overlie beach and nearshore deposits that cap the un derlying. Pleistocene glaciomarine facies. The presence of high marsh peat in the western portion of the study area corroborates the marsh-l ands shown in historical charts (1849-1925) of the Lynn shoreline prio r to massive tidelands filling projects. The stratigraphic study condu cted at this site provided convincing data to Massachusetts regulatory agencies concerning the original high tide boundaries, which led to t he approval of the development project.