This makes Calvert Cliffs State Park extremely interesting for its paleoclimatology and paleontology, because the accessible strata provide a good record of the Middle Miocene Climate Transition and document a minor mass extinction event — the "Middle Miocene disruption."

The ancestral baleen whale Eobalaenoptera harrisoni and the merganser Mergus miscellus were described from the Virginian part of the formation.

One was discovered by hobbyist paleontologist Jeffery DiMeglio in 2004 after cliff erosion caused by Hurricane Isabel exposed the skull and scapula.

[10] Other items found in the field jackets of the whale were fish bones, hundreds of mollusks, a Hexanchus gigas tooth, and two Carcharodon hastalis teeth.

[13] The Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant is located a short distance north of the park.

The Dominion Cove Point liquid natural gas receiving station is visible off shore from the park beach.