This map shows the saturated thickness of the water-table aquifer. This aquifer consists of the deposits of the Columbia Formation and those portions of the Magothy and Englishtown-Mt. Laurel formations, and Rancocas Group that are hydraulically connected with the Columbia deposits (see Groot, Demicco, and Cherry, 1983). For example, large, saturated thicknesses in the zone trending northeast-southwest near Townsend reflect the addition of the sands of the Rancocas Group to the total thickness of the sands of the overlying Columbia Formation.

In recent years there has been a renewed interest by both amateur and professional paleontologists in the rich upper Cretaceous exposures along the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, Delaware (Fig. 1). Large quantities of fossil material, mostly clams, oysters, and snails have been collected as a result of this activity. Recent dredging (1978, 1981) by the United States Army Corps of Engineers has helped expose a rich vertebrate fossil assemblage. It includes representatives from the classes Reptilia, Osteichthyes, and Chondrichthyes. An extensive literature search has revealed that a wealth of information exists which would aid in the identification of the vertebrate fossils of Delaware.

Columbia sediments in the Middletown-Odessa area are composed of boulders, gravels, sands, silts and clays. These sediments are exposed in four gravel pits where their structures and textures were studied. Subsurface geology was interpreted on the basis of the well-log data from 40 holes drilled in the area of study. Columbia sediments were laid upon a surface made up of the greensands of the Rancocas Formation (Paleocene – Eocene age). The contact between the Rancocas and Columbia Formations is an erosional unconformity.

Geology and hydrology of the Middletown-Odessa Area, Delaware.

Geohydrology of the Dover Aera, Delaware

Geology map showing the sub-surface geology of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal Area, Delaware.