Gastropoda is the scientific name for the group of animals more commonly called snails. Gastropods have a single coiled or uncoiled shell and are common fossil types in the Cretaceous sediments of the C & D canal area.
Dark-gray to gray silty clay to clayey silt that contains abundant fragments of lignite; grades downward into a very fine to fine sand with scattered and discontinuous thin beds of clayey silt with lignite fragments. Thickness ranges from 20 to 50 ft. Updip in the vicinity of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, the Magothy fills channels incised into the Potomac Formation and is discontinuous in its extent. Interpreted to have been deposited in coastal to nearshore environments.
Light- to dark-gray, very micaceous, glauconitic, very silty fine- to very fine-grained sand to fine sandy silt. Ranges from 20 to 120 ft in thickness. Marine in origin.
Light-gray to white, micaceous, slightly silty to silty, fine-grained, slightly glauconitic quartz sand. In outcrop, it is extensively burrowed with Ophiomorpha burrows. Ranges from 20 to 50 ft in thickness. On the cross-section, the Englishtown is shown only where the sands are well developed. Interpreted to be nearshore marine to tidal flat in origin.
Greenish-gray, slightly silty, fine-grained glauconitic quartz sand. Glauconite comprises 30 to 40 percent of the sand fraction. Ranges from 10 to 50 ft in thickness. Extensively burrowed. Interpreted to be marine in origin.
Generally a calcareous silt that is slightly to moderately sandy and slightly to moderately clayey. Sand is fine to very fine grained composed of about 50 percent glauconite, 40 percent peloids, and 10 percent quartz. Sediment is laminated, marked by varying amounts of clay and sand. Peloids are yellow to yellowish-brown flat to ovoid pellets that are calcareous and may contain flakes of chitin and grains of glauconite or quartz. Scattered shell fragments are present but form a minor constituent of the sediment. Uniformly dark-greenish-gray, slightly lighter in color than the overlying Hornerstown Formation. 10 to 20 ft thick.
Consists of 30 ft of silty, shelly, fine sands that are commonly glauconitic (Benson and Spoljaric, 1996). Deposited during the latest Paleocene to early Eocene (Benson and Spoljaric, 1996). Based on microfossils (unpublished DGS file data), it can be characterized as an open shelf deposit.
Glauconitic clayey silt and clay, with some glauconite sand and fine glauconitic quartz sand. Deposited in the middle Eocene (Benson and Spoljaric, 1996), and is generally 60 to 70 ft thick. Based on the microfossils (unpublished DGS file data), it can be characterized as an open shelf deposit.
Dark-red, gray, pink, and white silty clay to clayey silt and very fine to medium sand beds. Beds of gray clayey silt to very fine sand that contain pieces of charcoal and lignite are common. Deposited in a fluvial setting in a tropical to subtropical environment as indicated by abundant paleosol horizons. Ranges from 20 ft updip to over 1600 ft thick in southern New Castle County.
Slightly calcareous, glauconitic, quartz sand that is medium to fine grained. Contains about 3 to 5 percent glauconite. Sand is subrounded to subangular and slightly silty with a few moderately silty zones. Scattered belemnites are present as well as a few scattered shell fragments or thin shell beds. Uniform dark olive gray or yellowish-brown where weathered. In outcrop, reported to be extensively burrowed (Owens, et al., 1970). Where it is the surficial deposit south of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, the Mt. Laurel can be confused with the Columbia Formation, especially where the color is similar. Can be differentiated by ubiquitous presence of glauconite and generally better sorted sands of the Mt. Laurel. Marine in origin. Ranges from 30 to 100 ft in thickness.