In 2015, staff of the Water Supply Section of the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) informed the DGS of their concerns about overpumping of the unconfined Columbia aquifer in an area east of Dover (Figure 1). In this area, the City of Dover’s Long Point Road Wellfield (LPRW) and numerous irrigation systems pump water from the shallow Columbia aquifer.
1.8 mya to today
A parameterization of tidal marsh inundation was developed for the 1,200 hectares of tidal marsh along the 12-km reach of the tidal Murderkill River between Frederica and Bowers Beach in Kent County, Delaware. A parsimonious modeling approach was used that bridges the gap between the simple and often used “bathtub model” (instantaneous inundation based on tides in Delaware Bay), and the more complex modeling of shallow overland that results in the wetting and drying of tidal marshes.
The geological history of the surficial units of the Clayton, Smyrna, and the Delaware portion of the Millington Quadrangles are the result of deposition of the Beaverdam Formation and its modification by erosion and deposition of the Columbia Formation during the early Pleistocene. These units were then modified by the Lynch Heights and Scotts Corners Formations as a result of sea-level fluctuations during the middle to late Pleistocene. The geology is further complicated by periglacial activity that produced Carolina Bay deposits in the map area, which modified the land surface.
Open-File Report 50 presents and describes a database of geochronological information for coastal deposits of the US Atlantic and Pacific coasts, as well as for sites from the Pacific coast of South America. This database represents a synthesis of nearly forty years of study conducted by John F. Wehmiller and students in the Department of Geological Sciences, University of Delaware, as well as many collaborating colleagues.
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.