For many years, there has been a question in the minds of some Delawareans as to whether Delaware's highest elevation is Centreville or on Ebright Road. The Delaware Geological Survey (DGS) at the University of Delaware, through its relationship to the National Geodetic Survey (NGS) has determined that the highest monumented spot in Delaware is located on Ebright Road, near the Pennsylvania state line. Ebright Road is north of Namaans Road, east of route 202.

Friday, October 19th has been designated Geologic Map Day 2012. As an extension of the National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program of USGS, Geologic Map Day focuses the attention of students, teachers, and the general public on the study, uses, and significance of geologic maps for education, science, business, and a variety of public policy concerns.

The Delaware Geological Survey has released the Delaware Geologic Information Resource (DGIR), an online data display tool and map viewer for geologic and hydrologic information, as a "beta" site. DGIR was designed to provide the Delaware professional community with a variety of geoscience data in one application. DGS will continue to refine the both the data and functionality of the website as it is reviewed.

The United States Geoscience Information Network (USGIN) initiative is the product of a partnership between the Association of American State Geologists (AASG) and the United States Geological Survey (USGS) created to facilitate discovery of, and access to, geoscience information provided by state and federal geological surveys of the United States. DGS has entered into a partnership with the Arizona Geological Survey (AZGS) to participate in USGIN by establishing a metadata clearinghouse node for Delaware.

This project will assess tsunami hazard from the above mentioned and other relevant tsunami sources recently studied in the literature and model the corresponding tsunami inundation in affected US East coast communities. We will combine ocean scale simulations of transoceanic tsunami sources, such as Lisbon 1755 like or Puerto Rico Trench co-seismic events, and CVV collapse, with regional scale simulations of these events, along with the regional scale SMF events, in order to establish the relative degree of hazards for East Coast communities. Detailed inundation studies will be conducted for highest-risk East Coast communities, and results of these studies will be used to construct a first-generation of tsunami inundation maps for the chosen communities.

Lillian T. Wang, GIS specialist/cartographer, Delaware Geological Survey, made a presentation titled "Publishing Surficial Geologic Maps of Delaware" at Digital Mapping Techniques 2011, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Va., May 24.

In support of the University of Delaware's sustainability efforts, the Delaware Geological Survey is offering its First State Geology newsletter as an online document.

First State Geology features news about Delaware geology and water resources, recent DGS publications, and DGS staff activities.

The Delaware Geological Survey (DGS) has published a new geologic map of the Rehoboth Beach area in eastern Sussex County entitled Geologic Map of the Fairmount and Rehoboth Beach Quadrangles, Delaware. Geologic Map 16 presents the results of research by Kelvin W. Ramsey of the DGS.

The Delaware Geological Survey has a continuing program to map the geology of the entire state at the detailed scale of 1:24,000. The STATEMAP component of the National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program has contributed significantly to our surficial geologic mapping program. This work has entailed not only new geologic mapping, but also the digital compilation of previous mapping. Products resulting from this program include file formats that can be downloaded and printed from the web as geologic map products and imported into GIS software as georeferenced layers.

William "Sandy" Schenck lead a field trip through the Delaware Piedmont for the A.I. duPont High School Earth Science Class. The trip made use of the Wilmington-Western Railroad and everyone rode the railroad's "Doodle Bug." Activities included up close examinations of rock and mineral features and even "Panning for Garnets" at Brandywine Springs Park.

The Delaware Geological Survey (DGS) has published the surficial geology of the state of Delaware at a scale of 1:100,000 for New Castle and Kent counties (Ramsey, 2005, 2007). Maps at this scale are useful for viewing general geologic framework on a county-wide basis, determining the geology of watersheds, and recognizing the relationship of geology to county-wide environmental or land-use issues. These maps, when combined with subsurface geologic information, provide a basis for locating water supplies, mapping ground-water recharge areas, and protecting ground and surface water. Geologic maps are also used to identify geologic hazards, such as flood-prone areas, to identify sand and gravel resources, and for supporting state, county, and local land-use planning decisions. Portions of Sussex County have previously been mapped at 1:24,000-scale.

This project is designed to deliver, by web-based technologies, the most commonly available and requested geologic and hydrologic information used in hydrologic studies required by regulation and ordinance and used by state agencies to support resource-management decisions. Available information can be associated with points or areas. Information associated with points includes descriptive logs, geophysical logs, raw and interpreted groundwater levels, aquifer and geologic unit identification, and hydraulic characteristics of wells. Information associated with areas is either in the form of raster-based (grid) data or polygons. Examples of raster-based data include water-table depths and elevations, tops and thicknesses of geologic and aquifer units, and aquifer transmissivity. Examples of polygons include surficial geology and groundwater recharge potential.

The intent of developing a web-technology enabled system is to provide a more intuitive and comprehensive toolset for locating, quickly viewing, and downloading the desired information in an efficient, extensible, and familiar manner.

During the last two decades, storms such as Hurricanes Katrina and Ike along the Gulf of Mexico and Floyd and Hugo along the Atlantic Coast of the United States have resulted in significant loss of life, injuries, and property damages exceeding well over 100 billion dollars. Much of the damage associated with these and other tropical and extra-tropical weather systems is associated with severe coastal flooding. The purpose of this project is to develop a real-time coastal flood monitoring and warning system for the coastal communities in Kent County, Delaware. This system will serve as a prototype for similar early-warning systems, which may then be applied along the entire Delaware coast.

The Delaware Geological Survey (DGS) has published a new geologic map of the Georgetown area in eastern Sussex County entitled Geologic Map of the Georgetown Quadrangle, Delaware. Geologic Map No. 15 presents the results of research by Kelvin W. Ramsey of the DGS.