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The Chesapeake Bay is an important geographic feature in [[Maryland]] and [[Virginia]]. The Bay watershed drains 64,000 square miles of land. Aproximately 200 miles long and between 4 to 30 miles wide, the Chesapeake Bay is one of the major estuaries of the eastern seaboard of the United States. <ref>http://www.dnr.state.md.us/bay/education/faq/ques1.html</ref> According to Blair Rudes, a linguist who has studied the Algonquin language, ''chesapeake'' means ''Great Water'' or perhaps refers to an Algonquin village at the mouth of the bay. Locally oral history supports a different meaning: "Great Shellfish Bay". <ref>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/11/AR2006121101474_2.html?nav=rss_email/components</ref>

The Chesapeake Bay is an important geographic feature in [[Maryland]] and [[Virginia]]. The Bay watershed drains 64,000 square miles of land. Aproximately 200 miles long and between 4 to 30 miles wide, the Chesapeake Bay is one of the major estuaries of the eastern seaboard of the United States. <ref>http://www.dnr.state.md.us/bay/education/faq/ques1.html</ref> According to Blair Rudes, a linguist who has studied the Algonquin language, ''chesapeake'' means ''Great Water'' or perhaps refers to an Algonquin village at the mouth of the bay. Locally oral history supports a different meaning: "Great Shellfish Bay". <ref>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/11/AR2006121101474_2.html?nav=rss_email/components</ref> Countless rivers flow into the Chesapeake. The most famous and largest of these include the Potomac, the Susquehanna, the James and the Rappahannok.

Today, many researchers believe that they have found evidence of an asteroid or comet impact in what is now the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. That would make this impact one of the most significant cosmic impacts to ever strike what is now the continental United States. Scientists believe that the impacting object generated immense [[tsunami]] waves more than 2000 feet high and at the same time kicked up a terrible cloud of dust and debris.<ref>http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/astronomy/east_coast_asteroid_010320.html</ref>

Today, many researchers believe that they have found evidence of an asteroid or comet impact in what is now the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. That would make this impact one of the most significant cosmic impacts to ever strike what is now the continental United States. Scientists believe that the impacting object generated immense [[tsunami]] waves more than 2000 feet high and at the same time kicked up a terrible cloud of dust and debris.<ref>http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/astronomy/east_coast_asteroid_010320.html</ref>