Geologic Map of Prince George's County, Maryland (2003)
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ALLUVIUM -- Interbedded sand, silt-clay, and subordinate gravel. Light- to AQUIA FORMATION -- Sand, variably glauconitic, and minor calcareous or Qal dark-gray, tan, or brown; weathers pale-gray, yellow, or brown. Ta ferruginous sandstone. Dark greenish gray to medium-gray; weathering "salt and Correlation of Map Units pepper" speckled to rusty brown. Geologic Map of Prince George's County, Maryland Alluvium includes very heterogeneous, commonly poorly stratified sediments, with muddy sand and silt the dominant lithology. Organic matter, including The Aquia is composed of sand, fine- to medium-grained, poorly sorted to well Qal Holocene leaves, branches, and logs, is a common component. Thin peats occur in places. sorted, containing as much as 40 percent glauconite. Thin layers and Quaternary Dark gray organic muds are prevalent in tidal marsh areas. This unit underlies concretionary zones of calcareous shelly sandstone are scattered through the unit. by John D. Glaser, 2003 the channels and flanking valley floors of all major streams and many minor ones Outcrop sections contain "rusty" ferruginous sandstones in places. Bedding is Qt Pleistocene in the County. Much of this sediment is soft and water-saturated due to massive for the most part, with burrow mottling common. Molluscan fossils, And Silt- Loam Soils with Hardpan in Upland Deposits perennially high water tables. The composition of the alluvium in any given chiefly large Turritella and Ostrea , are present in some beds. The Aquia reaches 76°52'30"W stream valley reflects the source sediments; thus, alluvial sand contains a maximum 150 feet (45.7 m) in thickness in Prince George’s County. Aquia Tu upper Miocene - Pliocene 410000 considerable glauconite where the source is the Aquia, Nanjemoy, or Severn sands accumulated on the marginal marine shelf in less than 200 feet (61 m) of from Hack (1977) Formations. Small areas of tidal marsh are found bordering the Patuxent and water during late Paleocene time. Explanation of Map Symbols Potomac Rivers. Alluvial sediment thickness ranges from less than 5 feet (1.5 m) Tc lower and middle Miocene 1 0 to as much as 40 feet (12.2 m), although the average is closer to 15 feet (4.6 m). 0 Scale 1:62,500 Geologic Symbols Sediments mapped under this heading are geologically young, deposited mostly BRIGHTSEAT-SEVERN FORMATIONS, undivided 101230.5 Miles within the past 10,000 years. Tn Contact, TKbs approximate, gradational, or inferred BRIGHTSEAT FORMATION -- Sand and silt, clayey in part, variably lower Eocene Tertiary ent 5,000 0 5,000 10,000 15,000 Feet tux R Pa iv 100 A' glauconitic. Dark-gray to dark greenish gray; weathering pale-gray to brownish er A Line of Section gray. Tm 1012340.5 Kilometers -- Interbedded sand, gravel, and silt-clay. Typically 0 39°7'30"N TERRACE DEPOSITS 39°7'30"N upper Paleocene 2 1 Qt tan, brown, or shades of gray; weathers to yellow, orange, or brown hues, Topographic Symbols commonly limonitic. The Brightseat consists of mostly fine-grained, poorly sorted sand, with up to 30 28 \la 6 Contour Interval 10 Meters 00 percent glauconite, but generally much less. In places, the basal Brightseat Ta 0 Topographic Contour - Index (20- m interval) contains some medium to coarse sand with quartz granules, small pebbles, 1 Included under Terrace deposits are heterogeneous lithologies such as medium lower Paleocene 00 Topographic Contour - Intermediate (10- m interval) phosphatic clasts, and shark teeth. The unit is essentially a fining-upward 0 to coarse sand, pebbly sand, and subordinate silt-clay. These sediments are T 8 C U sequence, with the relatively coarse lower portion grading rapidly upward to fine- D St TKbs E contained in a series of disjunct bodies flanking the major streams in Prince U 160000 1 Q h 160000 Cultural/Transportation Symbols grained clayey sand and finally dense clayey micaceous silt. The abundance of Upper Cretaceous 40 A t George’s County, reaching as high as 160 feet in elevation across some portions 7 d Rd v pring l mica is characteristic of the upper Brightseat, as is a decided purplish cast in S B of the county, but declining to near sea level along the Patuxent River. A few Cretaceous County Boundary ndy unweathered sediment. The Brightseat is both thin and lithologically similar to Sa Laurel 6 such deposits are as thick as 50 feet (15.2 m), but the average is much less. Kps Kpc Lower Cretaceous 0 the underlying Severn Formation; thus, the two units are mapped together at this n Bedding within these deposits is mostly lenticular, but ranges to massive and to Major roads T g C n scale. It thickens southwestward across the county, reaching a maximum of U i D Kps h unstructured. The Terrace deposits are the product of stream erosion during the E s U a 1 Q about 60 feet (18.3 m) south of the District of Columbia. The Brightseat is a 20 A W Hydrologic Symbols early Quaternary, and are now isolated on the valley walls above the modern \la Cambrian marine shelf unit of early Paleocene age. Tu floodplain by renewed downcutting. Major terraces are associated with Western 80 (! A Reservoir, treatment Q e v Branch, Piscataway Creek, and Mattawoman Creek, as well as the Patuxent and U A 5 E SEVERN FORMATION -- Sand, fine-grained, variably glauconitic. Pale-gray to 9 D e (! Potomac Rivers. Deposits flanking the Patuxent River tend to be more laterally I- U r Gaging Station C o ¢ 8 T 0 (State Plane Grid North) medium-gray; weathering mottled pale-gray and yellow. im extensive than those along the smaller watercourses, averaging 20 to 25 feet (6.1 to lt a Dam/Weir, nonearthen 7.6 m) in thickness, and have been utilized as a source of construction sand and B E The Severn is composed almost entirely of very fine- to fine-grained glauconitic N gravel in the past. LI E Kps Stream; Connector IP sand, which is moderately to well sorted. The sand grades in places to dense P 0 A 0 1 N clayey micaceous sand and silt. Glauconite may comprise as much as 40 percent 8 Stream, intermittent 0 N 0 E 4 of the sand fraction. The basal few feet of the unit is fine- to medium-grained A R Shore, nonearthen with scattered granules and pebbles, siderite concretions, and shark teeth. Along U UPLAND DEPOSITS -- Sand, pebbly sand, and gravel, capped by sandy pebbly N 0 6 Qal D 0 E loam in places. Pale-gray, tan, or buff in color; weathering to yellow, orange, the Patuxent River and its tributaries in the vicinity of Bowie, a zone of large 6 L 0 420000 Tu Qal C 4 Aqueduct; pipeline Y OU 5 NT lobate or ellipsoidal ferruginous concretions marks the top of the formation. T I-9 Y and shades of brown. N Muirkirk U 8 76°45'0"W Dump Site, operational Moreover, outcrops along the Potomac may contain considerable selenite. Like O 0 e 1 C v Qt 0 A 0 The Upland deposits (or Brandywine Formation of earlier workers) consist the Brightseat, the Severn Formation is a thin unit, 40 feet (12.2 m) thick at most Y re Foreshore R o Patuxe E n largely of poorly sorted, medium to coarse sand interbedded with pebbly sand along the Patuxent, and reducing to about 13 feet (4.0 m) in outcrop at the im t M Kps lt a y R O k Potomac River. It is mapped with the Brightseat as a single map unit. The B i Lake/Pond, intermittent and medium to coarse gravel. The sand is predominantly quartz, and the pebbles G P v Tu e T n r quartzite, sandstone, and chert. The basal beds of the deposit include scattered Severn was deposited on the inner marine shelf in Late Cretaceous time. N 60 o d t 4 O R g 0 Water body ll n boulders ranging to several feet in diameter. Bedding is chiefly lenticular, and M i i 0 40 M h 6 6 r 60 s (including lakes, ponds, streams) e 0 d a cross-bedded to massive. Where least dissected, the uppermost portion of the w o W P Tu e deposit consists of as much as 15 feet (4.6 m) of compact yellowish to reddish- r Reservoir o POTOMAC GROUP (Patapsco, Arundel, Patuxent Formations) 0 8 Kpc m i brown pebbly loam. Total thickness of the unit reaches a maximum 40 feet (12.2 t l a L Swamp/Marsh a m). The Upland deposits are fluvial sediments, presumably laid down by the 60 B u The Potomac Group includes the Patapsco, Arundel and Patuxent Formations. In re ancestral Potomac River as it swept southward across southern Maryland in late Beltsville l B Prince George’s County these units have not been mapped separately at the ow 40 i e R Miocene and Pliocene time (McCartan, 1989a, 1989b). county scale; instead sediments of the Potomac Group have been mapped Kps 40 d 0 77°0'0"W 0 4 4 0 according to dominant lithology: sand-gravel facies (Kps) or silt-clay facies 4 Silt loam soils with hardpan in Upland deposits (Hack, 1977) -- Silt- (Kpc). Potomac Group strata are Early Cretaceous in age, and record floodplain 2 loam surface soils containing thick hardpan as mapped by Hack (1977) A 0 deposition. A maximum thickness of about 1000 feet (about 305 m) is known in Qt Qt E 430000 within the Upland deposits (Tu) (geologic unit). The hardpan is 400000 \la d the outcrop belt. I-9 m 5 0 described as 3 to 4 feet thick (0.9 to 1.2 m) and approximately 2 feet o Kpc 6 I - 495 n s (0.6 m) below the ground surface.