Kent Island Formation

GM23 Geologic Map of the Seaford West and Seaford East Quadrangles, Delaware

The geological history of the surficial units of the Seaford East Quadrangle and the Delaware portion of the Seaford West Quadrangle was the result of deposition of the Beaverdam Formation and its subsequent modification by erosion and deposition related to sea-level fluctuations during the Pleistocene. The geology reflects this complex history by the cut and fill geometry of the middle and late Pleistocene deposits incised into the Beaverdam Formation.

GM22 Geologic Map of the Sharptown, Laurel, Hebron, and Delmar Quadrangles, Delaware

The geological history of the surficial geologic units in western Sussex County is that of deposition of the Beaverdam Formation and its subsequent modification by erosion and deposition related to the sea-level fluctuations during the Pleistocene. The geology reflects this complex history by the cut and fill geometry of the middle and late Pleistocene deposits into the Beaverdam Formation. The geology is further complicated by periglacial activity that produced dune deposits and Carolina Bays in the map area, which modified the land surface.

Kent Island Formation

Owens and Denny (1979) named the Kent Island Formation for deposits bordering the Chesapeake Bay found underneath lowlands that ranged in elevation from 0 to 25 feet in elevation but most of the land surface area is less than 10 feet in elevation. These lowlands are bordered by a scarp with at toe at approximately 25 feet. In its type area, the Kent Island Formation was described as consisting of thick beds of loose, light colored, cross-stratified sand overlying dark-colored massive to thinly laminated clay-silt. Pebbles as much as 10 cm (4 in.) in diameter occur in thin beds with the sand or as scattered clasts in both the sand and clay-silt. Locally, large tree stumps in growth position are encased in the clay-silt. Maximum thickness of the Kent Island was about 12 m (40 feet).

RI76 Stratigraphy, Correlation, and Depositional Environments of the Middle to Late Pleistocene Interglacial Deposits of Southern Delaware

Rising and highstands of sea level during the middle to late Pleistocene deposited swamp to nearshore sediments along the margins of an ancestral Delaware Bay, Atlantic coastline, and tributaries to an ancestral Chesapeake Bay. These deposits are divided into three lithostratigraphic groups: the Delaware Bay Group, the Assawoman Bay Group (named herein), and the Nanticoke River Group (named herein). The Delaware Bay Group, mapped along the margins of Delaware Bay, is subdivided into the Lynch Heights Formation and the Scotts Corners Formation.