Seismic Stratigraphy Along Three Multichannel Seismic Reflection Profiles off Delaware's Coast

Abstract

Three multichannel, common-depth-point (CDP), seismic reflection profiles (Figures 1-3) were run off Delaware's coast (Figure 4) for the Delaware Geological Survey. Their purposes were (1) to determine the depth to the unconformity (=post-rift unconformity) at the base of the nearshore submerged Coastal Plain sedimentary rocks and (2) to relate onshore with offshore geology as interpreted from the U. S. Geological Survey's network of regional seismic profiles (Figure 5). In addition, the nearshore profiles reveal considerable detail about the nature of the Neogene lithostratigraphic units and aquifers within them that supply water to the coastal communities of Delaware and Maryland (Miller, 1971; Weigle and Achmad, 1982).