Rockford Park Gneiss
OFR54 Bedrock Geologic Map of the Delaware Piedmont
The Piedmont rock units in Delaware, and bedrock geologic map of Schenck et al. (2000) are revised in this report based on new rock geochemistry, geochronometric data, petrography, and recent detailed mapping. Major revisions include:
OFR55 Delaware Geological Survey Petrographic Data Viewer
Petrography is a branch of geoscience focused on the description and classification of rocks, primarily by microscopic study of optical properties of minerals. A thin sliver of rock is cut from a sample, mounted on a glass slide, ground to approximately 30 microns (0.03mm), and viewed under a microscope that uses polarized light. By observing the colors produced as plain polarized light and crossed (90 degrees) polarized light shines through the minerals, petrologists can determine the minerals that comprise the sampled rock.
A.I.duPont Students see geology of the Delaware Piedmont
Date
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.
Outcrop Bd41-b: Rockford Park Gneiss Boulders at Rockford Park
The Rockford Park boulders can be found just beyond the Rockford Tower on the slope facing the Brandywine Creek. Some areas of the Rockford Park Gneiss actually display some banding of felsic gneiss and mafic gneiss which are interlayered on a scale of 4" to 2'. This banding strikes 30 degrees east of north and dips 60 degrees to the northwest. The mafic layers are boudinaged and broken, some of which are weathered away into a prominent relief. Between some layers, the rock is intruded by a coarse-grained and apparently undeformed gabbro.
Rockford Park Gneiss
Fine-grained mafic and fine- to medium-grained felsic gneisses interlayered on the decimeter scale. Layers are laterally continuous, but mafic layers commonly show boudinage. Felsic layers are composed of quartz and plagioclase with
RI59 Bedrock Geology of the Piedmont of Delaware and Adjacent Pennsylvania
This report accompanies a new map that revises the original bedrock geologic maps of the Delaware Piedmont compiled by Woodruff and Thompson and published by the Delaware Geological Survey (DGS) in 1972 and 1975. Combined detailed mapping, petrography, geochemistry, and U-Pb geochronology have allowed us to redefine two rock units and formally recognize eleven new units. A section of the Pennsylvania Piedmont is included on the new map to show the entire extent of the Mill Creek Nappe and the Arden Plutonic Supersuite.
Deformation in the Piedmont
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.
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GM13 Geologic Map of New Castle County, Delaware
This map shows the surficial geology of New Castle County, Delaware at a scale of 1:100,000. Maps at this scale are useful for viewing the general geologic framework on a county-wide basis, determining the geology of watersheds, and recognizing the relationship of geology to regional or county-wide environmental or land-use issues. This map, when combined with the subsurface geologic information, provides a basis for locating water supplies, mapping ground-water recharge areas, and protecting ground and surface water.
GM10 Bedrock Geologic Map of the Piedmont of Delaware and Adjacent Pennsylvania
This is a map of the crystalline bedrock units in the Piedmont of Delaware and adjacent Pennsylvania. The southern boundary of the mapped area is the updip limit of the Potomac Formation (Woodruff and Thompson, 1972, 1975). Soil, regolith, and surficial deposits of Quaternary age are not shown.