Wambaw Swamp is a

swamp A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...

in northeastern

Charleston County, South Carolina Charleston County is located in the U.S. state of South Carolina along the Atlantic coast. As of the 2020 census, its population was 408,235, making it the third most populous county in South Carolina (behind Greenville and Richland counties). ...

. It is located entirely within the

Francis Marion National Forest The Francis Marion National Forest is located north of Charleston, South Carolina. It is named for revolutionary war hero Francis Marion, who was known to the British as the Swamp Fox. It lies entirely within the Middle Atlantic coastal forests ...

and contains , all of which is designated as a

wilderness area Wilderness or wildlands (usually in the plural), are natural environments on Earth that have not been significantly modified by human activity or any nonurbanized land not under extensive agricultural cultivation. The term has traditionally re ...

. This forest wetland is a mix of river-bottom hardwood and pine. To the southeast lies the Little Wambaw Swamp Wilderness, a

managed by the

U.S. Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency in ...

. The area is similar to the main Wambaw Swamp ecologically with more high ground for walking and camping. Wambaw Creek Wilderness protects of the watershed along the Charleston and Berkeley County line as it leaves the swamps and empties into the South Santee River near

Hampton Plantation Hampton Plantation, also known as Hampton Plantation House and Hampton Plantation State Historic Site, is a historic plantation, now a state historic site, north of McClellanville, South Carolina. The plantation was established in 1735, and its ...

State Historic Site.

Geological setting

The Wambaw Swamp lies in a geological province known as the coastal terraces, with surface features derived from the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

inundations of the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

. During this epoch, the Atlantic Ocean advanced and retreated over this area numerous times. The successive shorelines created alternating

tidal flats Mudflats or mud flats, also known as tidal flats or, in Ireland, slob or slobs, are coastal wetlands that form in intertidal areas where sediments have been deposited by tides or rivers. A global analysis published in 2019 suggested that tidal fl ...

and

barrier islands Barrier islands are coastal landforms and a type of dune system that are exceptionally flat or lumpy areas of sand that form by wave and tidal action parallel to the mainland coast. They usually occur in chains, consisting of anything from a ...

, similar to those along the present coastline just to the southeast of the swamp; today these features, stranded on higher land once the ocean retreated, are marked by terraces and scarps, respectively. These scarps create barriers to drainage, capturing runoff and leading to the formation of swamps on their landward side. The Wambaw Swamp system is one such swamp. The highest ground in the Wambaw Swamp system is the Little Wambaw Swamp, which formed on the Princess Anne Terrace, bounded on the south by the Mount Pleasant Scarp and the north by the Awendaw Scarp. The Little Wambaw Swamp drains north through a gap in the Awendaw Scarp into the Wambaw Swamp proper, which is contained between the Awendaw and Cainhoy Scarps on the Pamlico Terrace. The Wambaw Swamp drains east along the Pamlico Terrace, parallel to the scarps and coast, into the

Santee River } The Santee River is a river in South Carolina in the United States, and is long. The Santee and its tributaries provide the principal drainage for the coastal areas of southeastern South Carolina and navigation for the central coastal plain of ...

.Genetic Stratigraphy and Geochronology of the Last Interglacial Shorelines on the Central Coast of South Carolina

Geological setting

References

External links