Wildwood Member of the Kirkwood Formation

Wildwood Member - Clay, silty, massive to finely bedded, dark-gray to olive-gray, locally interbedded with thin beds of light-colored sand. Contains small shell fragments primarily at base. Upper beds are more sandy than lower beds but also contain many thin to thick beds of clay. The sand is fine to medium grained, light gray, and commonly has dispersed wood fragments. Shell fragments are locally present in this facies. Basal beds are micaceous, locally diatomaceous, and contain wood fragments. Quartz is the major sand constituent with minor amounts of siliceous rock fragments and feldspar. The Wildwood subcrops beneath surficial deposits where the Belleplain Member and Cohansey Formation were stripped away. Along Delaware Bay, the Wildwood subcrops from near the Cohansey River to Fortescue, Cumberland County. Along the Atlantic Coast, the unit subcrops from Bay Shore Park to near Beach Haven Park, Ocean County. The maximum thickness of the unit is about 18 m (59 ft). The contact with the underlying Shiloh Marl Member is sharp and unconformable. Diatoms from the Wildwood Member are from the East Coast Diatom Zone (ECDZ) 2 of Andrews (1988) indicating a latest Burdigalian and Langhian age (late early and early middle Miocene).