Hydrogeologic framework of
the North Carolina Coastal Plain aquifer system
Open-File Report 87-690
By M.D. Winner, Jr. and R.W. Coble
Abstract
The hydrogeologic framework of the North Carolina Coastal Plain aquifer
system consists of ten aquifers separated by nine confining units.
From top to bottom the aquifers are: the surficial
aquifer, Yorktown aquifer, Pungo River aquifer, Castle
Hayne aquifer, Beaufort aquifer, Peedee aquifer, Black
Creek aquifer, upper Cape Fear aquifer, lower Cape Fear
aquifer, and the Lower Cretaceous aquifer. The uppermost aquifer
(the surficial aquifer in most places) is a water-table
aquifer and the bottom of the system is underlain by
crystalline bedrock. The sedimentary deposits forming the aquifers
are of Holocene to Cretaceous age and are composed mostly of sand
with lesser amounts of gravel and limestone. Confining units
between aquifers are composed primarily of clay and silt.
The thickness of the aquifers ranges from zero along the Fall Line to more
than 10,000 feet at Cape Hatteras. Prominent structural
features are the increasing easterly homoclinal dip of the sediments
and the Cape Fear arch, the axis of which trends in a
southeast direction. The stratigraphic continuity is determined
from correlations of 161 geophysical logs along with data
from drillers' and geologists' logs. Aquifers were defined by means of
these logs plus water-level and water-quality data and evidence
of the continuity of pumping effects. Eighteen hydrogeologic
sections depict the correlation of these aquifers throughout the
Coastal Plain.
Citation:
Winner, M.D., Jr., and Coble, R.W., 1989, Hydrogeologic framework of the North Carolina Coastal Plain aquifer system: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 87-690, 155 p.
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