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.

Crystalline bedrock geology of the Wilmington area, Delaware.

A series of cores was obtained from a boring in the sediments of the Delaware River near the Delaware Memorial Bridge. The mineralogy, texture and palynology of these samples have been studied. The sedimentary and palynological records suggest that the Delaware River, while swollen with Wisconsin meltwaters, deepened its channel and that subsequent flooding of the mouth of the stream by rising sea waters initiated the deposition of estuarine silts in post-Wisconsin time.