Introduction
The Geophysical Landscape
The Abstract Landscape

The Eastern Shore of Virginia is geographically removed from the rest of Virginia. It extends south from the Pocomoke River, which separates it from the Eastern Shore of Maryland, to form the southern tip of the Delmarva Peninsula and sits between the largest estuary in the United States, the Chesapeake Bay, to the west, and the Atlantic Ocean, to the east. The Eastern Shore counties of Accomack and Northampton encompass approximately 480 square miles of surface area, which can be characterized as a peninsular mainland penetrated by bayside tidal creeks and buffered from the ocean by a string of low barrier islands and associated marshlands. Mainland terrain ranges in elevation from sea level to about sixty feet and runs approximately seventy miles from the southern tip of the peninsula at Cape Charles to the Maryland border to the north. Maximum width including the marshes and barrier islands is approximately fourteen miles. 8