." a 



« rt H 



S S 



■^ o 



in b 



MARYLAND GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 1)9 



Feet. 

 Drab-colored sandy clay bearing fossils (5G 



Miocene. 



o, q -< Drab-colored sandy clay bearing fossils 74 



c £ 



Total 180 



THE WICOMICO FORMATION. 



The next j'ounger formation of the Columbia Group is the Wicomico. 

 It has received its name from the Wicomico Eiver in Charles and St. 

 Mary's counties, for in the valley of this estuary it is found well de- 

 veloped. Like the Sunderland, it consists of clay, loam, sand, gravel, 

 and ice-borne boulders which were deposited by the waters of Chesapeake 

 Bay and its estuaries. Since its deposition it has suffered considerably 

 from erosion. 



Areal Distribution. 



The Wicomico formation is not as extensively developed in Calvert 

 County as its predecessor, the Sunderland. It occupies a lower level 

 and wraps about the latter like a border, not only along the margin of 

 the Patuxent Eiver, but in all the valleys of the principal streams which 

 penetrate the body of the Sunderland formation. Along the Bay shore 

 the Wicomico has been largely removed, but fragments of it are still to 

 be found in the vicinity of Chesapeake Beach, Plum Point, Dares Wharf, 

 Flag Pond, and Cove Point. In the valleys of Fishing and Hunting 

 creeks the Wicomico formation extends across the county from Chesa- 

 peake Bay to the Patuxent River. Farther south, in the Parker-Battle 

 creek valleys, a similar continuous deposit of Wicomico existed although 

 it has been almost entirely removed from the valley of the former. In 

 the valley of St. Leonard Creek the Wicomico formation extends well 

 back toward the shore of Chesapeake Bay, but does not extend entirely 

 across the divide as it is separated by a narrow neck of Sunderland. 



