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The Delaware Academy of Science has been instrumental in informing Delaware citizens about science and utilization of local resources. Since 1970 the annual meeting of the Delaware Academy of Science has been used as a time for presentation of ongoing research in various areas of science in the Delaware region. The proceedings of these meetings have resulted in publication of transactions of the Delaware Academy of Science. The 1976 annual meeting focused on aspects of the geology of Delaware. Members of the Delaware Geological Survey and the Geology Department at the University of Delaware contributed papers in their specific disciplines. This volume presents an overview of studies of geological features and processes of evolution of the geology of Delaware. Although this collection of papers does not represent an all-inclusive study of the subject, the selections included in this volume highlight past, present, and future trends in the study of Delaware's geology. It is hoped that the combined bibliographies of all the papers will provide a comprehensive view of the literature for further investigation into the geology of Delaware.

The Generalized Geologic Map of Delaware is a brief summary for general use indicating the major types and locations of rocks present throughout the State, and their interrelationships. The map is preliminary as it is a first step in a continuing program of detailed geologic mapping. It is based upon many existing sources of data; additional detail may be found in the references listed.

This map shows the total thickness (regolith) of both the loose, transported material and the weathered rock that overlies crystalline rocks of the Delaware Piedmont. Transported material is generally thin and the weathered rock in place (saprolite) usually makes up the bulk of the regolith. Saprolite may vary gradationally from a weathered rock that has retained much of the characteristics of the parent rock to a product mineralogically and texturally different from its source rock.

Examination of continuous water-level hydrographs from two artesian observation wells in the Piedmont near Newark, Delaware reveals water-level fluctuations caused by earthquakes and by earth tides. The effects of 14 distant earthquakes with MS (surface wave) magnitudes between 6.7 and 8.0 and MB (body wave) magnitudes between 5.9 and 7.0 (National Earthquake Information Service, 1975-1977) have been recorded over a two-year and ten-month period.

This report is a compilation of four papers presented by DGS staff members at the Baltimore Meeting of the Northeastern Section of the Geological Society of America, March, 1974.

The Delaware Piedmont is underlain by metamorphosed sedimentary and igneous rocks of Middle Proterozoic to Paleozoic age. The rocks have been studied for many years, but because of poor exposure, high-grade metamorphism, and intense deformation, it has been difficult to identify units, understand their stratigraphic relationships to one another, and determine their origin and history; however, northern Delaware occupies a critical position in the central Appalachian Piedmont, and understanding its geology is key to understanding the geology of this region.

Delaware has an abundant supply of ground water of a quality suitable for most purposes. About 30 million gallons of water a day was pumped from the ground in 1954. It is estimated that this is roughly 1/16 of the optimum yield. This water is derived from nine groups or series of water-bearing units and is obtained from wells which yield as much as 1,100 gallons per minute. Thousands of wells serve agriculture, industry, municipalities, and domestic users. Geographically, Delaware is situated along the Atlantic coast of the United States in two physiographic provinces: the Piedmont and the Coastal Plain. The Piedmont is a belt of rolling foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. It is separated from the Coastal Plain by the Fall Line, a narrow zone of rapids or falls along which rivers and creek descend rapidly from the mature valleys of the Piedmont to the sluggish tidal estuaries of the coastal area. The Coastal Plain is a flat or gently undulating plain of relatively low altitude, which borders the Atlantic Ocean and its estuarine embayments.

This report describes the geological and lithological conditions in the Newark area, and the occurrence, quantity, and quality of the available ground-water supply. Newark is located on the Fall Line, the boundary between the rolling hills of the Piedmont on the north and the gentle slopes of the Coastal Plain on the south. Because the Piedmont is underlain by dense crystalline rocks and their weathered clayey soils, which are of low water-bearing capacity in contrast to the more permeable silts and sands of the Coastal Plain, the exploration for ground water was confined to the Coastal Plain south and southeast of Newark.

Field reconnaissance, geologic mapping, and photogeologic interpretations aided collectively in the identification of 30 potential high-yield well sites in the crystalline rocks of Delaware's western Piedmont. Fracture traces discernable on panchromatic and color infrared photography were identified in the study area. Well locations were selected on individual traces and on fracture trace intersections. Six test wells averaging 468.5 feet in depth were drilled at selected sites. Test analyses indicate that production wells at these sites would have a combined potential estimated at 1.0 to 1.1 million gallons per day of water. A thorough knowledge of the hydrogeologic framework is key to successful ground-water exploration and development. Subsurface fracturing is of prime importance in governing the water-yielding properties in the crystalline rocks. The surface traces of vertical or near-vertical zones of subsurface rock fracture were identified and used as an aid in high-capacity well siting.

Delaware’s oldest rocks are metamorphic crystalline rocks of the central Appalachian Piedmont Physiographic Province. Atlantic Coastal Plain sediments overlie the crystalline rocks of the Piedmont and range in thickness from a feather edge at the Fall Line to approximately 9,000 feet in the southeastern corner of Delaware. Sediments range in age from Early Cretaceous to Holocene.

The shaded relief image on the left was created using 30-meter resolution Digital Elevation Models (DEMs). The DEMs were developed by John Mackenzie, University of Delaware College of Agriculture and Natural Resources Spatial Analysis Laboratory, from rasterized 1992-93 United States Geological Survey (USGS) Digital Line Graph (DLG) hypsography data. He also combined these data with zero-elevation contours extracted from 1989 Landsat TM Band 7 satellite imagery for coastal quadrangles. The image was digitally enhanced using a false sun angle of 45 degrees shining from the northwest to exaggerate the geomorphic features. In reality the Delaware Coastal Plain is not "mountainous," as it looks in this enhanced image. The hydrology layer was created using USGS 30 x 60 minute and 7.5 minute series DLG data. Municipal boundaries were created using the Delaware Municipal Boundary Framework Layer. Both maps are projected in Universal Transverse Mercator, Zone 18 (UTM 18) on the North American Datum 1983 (NAD83).

The Red Clay Creek Valley traverses geologic features that have long been recognized as important to science, industry, and history. The reader will note that within the text “Piedmont,” and “Atlantic Coastal Plain” are capitalized. This is because these are formal geologic provinces. The “Fall Line” or “fall zone” is also an important geologic area. The Fall Line is the contact where the hard crystalline rocks of the Piedmont dip under and disappear beneath the sediments of the Coastal Plain. The fall zone is a narrow zone that parallels the Fall Line where rapids and waterfalls are common. The landscape and rock types shown in northern Delaware are classical examples of the larger geologic features that dominate the geology of eastern North America.

Emphasis is placed herein on the years of Dr. Groot's leadership of the Survey. The remarkable work of James C. Booth in the last century is acknowledged but has elsewhere been entered in history. Some continuing activities of the Survey after 1969 are noted together with comments of an experienced observer; this current period may someday receive the attention of a recorder having the enhanced perspective of time.

The following report of the geological survey of the state of Delaware, conducted in the years 1837 and 1838, embraces all the observations and examinations which were made during the continuance of the survey, including those contained in the first and second annual reports, already laid before the legislature.

Previously published in 1966 as Special Publication 4.

In order to obtain sufficient data which will enable the State to develop its water resources to the fullest extent of which they are capable, a series of systematic investigations is necessary. A long-range plan describing these studies is the subject of this report. A brief discussion of water in Delaware is presented first to provide a proper background for the long-range plan. The plan itself merely outlines the overall objectives and types of investigational work that must be pursued if the State is to develop its water resources wisely.

This is a brief story about water and the ways in which the Delaware Geological Survey helps insure that you will always have a plentiful supply of this precious natural resource.