On July 2, 1996, Belemnitella americana was named as the official fossil of Delaware. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School (Wilmington) third grade Quest students of Kathy Tidball suggested honoring the ancient and noble belemnite as our State fossil.(Delaware Code Title 29 § 314)
In 1977, the Delaware General Assembly, acting on a proposal by the Delaware Mineralogical Society, established sillimanite as the Delaware State Mineral. This act recognizes the geological and mineralogical significance of the large masses of this mineral found as boulders at Brandywine Springs, an occurrence that was recognized as important in the 6th (1892) edition of Dana's System of Mineralogy. The Brandywine Springs boulders are remarkable for their size and purity. The sillimanite has a fibrous texture reminiscent of wood and could potentially be cut into cabochon gems showing a chatoyant ("cat's eye") effect. Sillimanite is not mined as an ore or raw material in Delaware.
Delaware offers a few sites for fossil collectors, and the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal and the Pollack Farm are the best. Other locations throughout the state also offer good hunting grounds for fossil collectors. Just south of Dagsboro, where Route 113 crosses Pepper Creek, the collector can find young (less than 2 million year old) marine fossils from the Pleistocene Epoch. At the state sand and gravel pit just south of Middletown on Route 896, plant impressions from the Pleistocene may be found.
Greensand is composed primarily of the mineral glauconite -- a potassium, iron, aluminum silicate. In some Delaware greensands, the glauconite content exceeds 90%. The remaining 10% is mainly quartz. In the past, greensand was used in Delaware as an inexpensive fertilizer. The only active greensand mine in the U.S. today is in New Jersey. Once mined, greensand is dried and used as a soil conditioner. Greensand is also used in water softeners primarily to remove iron from the water. Recent research has shown that greensand has the potential for use as a filter of heavy metals from industrial waste water and landfill leachates.
The State of Delaware is located within two physiographic provinces, the Appalachian Piedmont and the Atlantic Coastal Plain. The Fall Zone divides these two provinces and essentially runs parallel to Delaware Rt. 2, Kirkwood Highway.
The Mason-Dixon Line wasn’t created to divide North and South, but to settle a dispute between Colonial landowners. The Mason-Dixon Line, the iconic dividing line between North and South, is an invisible line running across the backyard of many Delawareans. Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon’s milestone markers still dot the Maryland-Delaware-Pennsylvania border more than 240 years after they completed their survey.
The Delaware Piedmont is but a small part of the Appalachian Mountain system that extends from Georgia to Newfoundland. This mountain system is the result of tectonic activity that took place during the Paleozoic era, between 543 and 245 million years ago. Since that time, the mountains have been continuously eroding, and their deep roots slowly rising in compensation as the overlying rocks are removed. It is surprising to find that although the Delaware Piedmont has passed through the whole series of tectonic events that formed the Appalachians, the mineralogy and structures preserved in Delaware were formed by the early event that occurred between 470 and 440 million years ago, called the Taconic orogeny.
Earthquakes occur in northern Delaware and adjacent areas of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New Jersey. Over 550 earthquakes have been documented within 150 miles of Delaware since 1677, and 69 earthquakes have been documented or suspected in Delaware since 1871.
Delaware and surrounding areas experienced an earthquake event on the afternoon of Tuesday, August 23, 2011. According to the US Geological Survey, a magnitude 5.8 earthquake struck at 1:51 p.m. in central Virginia, in an area referred to as “the Central Virginia Seismic Zone” because of its relatively active earthquake activity for the region. The epicenter was located five miles south-southwest of Mineral, Virginia, with the quake was focused at a depth of 6 km (3.7 miles) below the surface (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/se082311a.html). The Virginia Geological Survey reports that this is the largest Virginia earthquake known in historic times. A few small aftershocks have occurred in the hours afterward.
Tropical storms Irene and Lee caused a 9-1/2 foot rise of the water table in western Sussex County near Laurel. Groundwater levels and temperatures in Qb35-08 were collected with an automated pressure-temperature datalogger system. At the same time, rainfall and soil moisture data were recorded by the DEOS Laurel Airport station located approximately 5 miles from the well.