Correct Response: D. Cape Cod and the nearby islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket are largely composed of sand deposited during the advance and retreat of the last continental ice sheet (i.e., the Laurentide ice sheet). This occurred toward the end of the Pleistocene Epoch of the Quaternary Period. Cape Cod and the islands did not exist during the much earlier Eocene Epoch of the Paleogene Period (A). The Miocene Epoch (B) and the Pliocene Epoch (C) are part of the Neogene Period. The Neogene lasts until the onset of the Pleistocene Epoch glaciations approximately 2.6 million years ago. This was a period of gradual cooling that ultimately led to the continental glaciations of the Pleistocene Epoch, but Cape Cod and the islands did not yet exist at this time.
