Considered one of Delaware's most famous Piedmont outcrops, the Windy Hills Bridge outcrop is composed of mafic and felsic gneiss of the Windy Hills Gneiss. Much of the layering in the outcrop is regular and is 8 to 10" thick. At the contact between these layers there is evidence of partial melting. In terms of mineralogy, this rock contains mainly hornblende, plagioclase, quartz, biotite and epidote. This outcrop shows tight folds that plunge steeply 70-90 degrees to the northeast and southwest. The gneiss is cut by a long lens of pegmatite, which intruded after the folding and metamorphosing that yielded the gneiss.

There is also an interesting layer of cobble just above the bedrock in this area presumed to be the contact with the Coastal Plain sediments. These newer outcrops to the southwest display a 4-10" pelitic layer which becomes more extremely magmatic, with 1" leucosomes and ½" mafic selvages.

Overall, strikes of foliations of the mafic and felsic layering in these outcrops are 70-75 degrees east of north and the dips are a steep 80-85 degrees to the southeast, or almost vertical.

All the rock units in Delaware’s Piedmont are highly deformed. Deformational features, such as folds, faults, and/or joints, are present in almost every outcrop.

GeoAdventures are designed to allow the reader to learn about a particular geologic point of interest in Delaware’s Piedmont province and then take a short field trip to that area. Want to know more about the Wilmington blue rock or Brandywine blue granite? Take the Wilmington Blue Rock GeoAdventure and go see just what the blue rock looks like.

William S. Schenck, a scientist with the Delaware Geological Survey, has been taking students from A.I. duPont High School on Wilmington & Western Railroad tours, observing rock outcrop locations along the way.