124 THE GEOLOGY OF PRIXCE GEORGE S COUNTY 



The Talbot Formation. 



Talbot County, Md., where the formation occupies a broad terrace 

 bordering numerous estuaries, has furnished the name for this forma- 

 tion. It Avas first given by G. B. Shattuck in 1901/ The Talbot 

 represents the lower part of the Later Columbia described by McGee 

 and Darton and corresponds approximately to the Cape May forma- 

 tion of Salisbury. Its Pleistocene age is proved by the fossils found 

 at Cornfield Harbor. 



Areal Distribution. — The Talbot formation is well developed in 

 Prince George's County. It occurs as a terrace of varying width 

 extending from the Wicomico-Talbot scarp out to the edge of the 

 surrounding waters. It is well distributed throughout the region, 

 bordering the various estuaries and streams. Its most continuous 

 and unbroken areas are situated in the valleys of the Patuxent and 

 Anacostia rivers. 



Character' of Materials. — The materials which compose the Talbot 

 formation consist of clay, peat, sand, gravel, and ice-borne boulders. 

 As in the Sunderland and Wicomico deposits, these materials grade 

 into each other both vertically and horizontally, and the formation 

 exhibits the same tendency toward a bipartite division, with the 

 coarser materials beneath and the finer materials above. There is, 

 on the whole, much less decayed material in the Talbot than in the 

 two preceding formations and as a result the formation has a much 

 younger ajipearance than the other Pleistocene deposits. 



In the western portion of the county, in the vicinity of Washing- 

 ton and Anacostia, the Talbot beds contain many large boulders which 

 have been carried by ice and dropped in deposits of much finer 

 material. Some of these boulders show their glacial origin in that 

 they have been planed by the wearing action of the ice and bear 

 glacial striae. Cross stratification is very common in the Talbot 

 deposits. One of the best exposures of this structure can be seen in 

 a shallow cut along the Chesapeake Beach Railroad about one-fourth 

 mile from Patuxent Biver. Another good exposure of cross stratifi- 



' Johns Hopkins Univ. Circ. No. 152. 



