Wildwood Member of the Kirkwood Formation

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).
State New Jersey
Name Wildwood Member of the Kirkwood Formation
Geologic age middle and lower Miocene, Langhian and Burdigalian
Lithologic constituents
Major
Unconsolidated > Coarse-detrital > Sand (Bed)Sand interbedded with thin beds of light-colored sand, contains small shell fragments primarily at base; upper beds are more sandy than lower beds; 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.
Unconsolidated > Fine-detrital > Clay (Bed)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.
Minor
Unconsolidated > Fine-detrital > Silt (Bed)
Comments part of the Kirkwood Formation (described seperately, but not mapped): Kirkwood Formation (middle and lower Miocene, Serravallian to Aquitanian) - Consists of the Wildwood Member and an informal lower member on the central sheet and the Belleplain Member, Wildwood Member, Shiloh Marl Member, and lower member on the southern sheet. The Belleplain Member is a new member named for beds occurring in a corehole drilled by the U.S. Geological Survey at Belleplain State Forest Headquarters, Cape May County. The Wildwood Member is a new member named for beds occurring in a drillhole at Wildwood Beach, Cape May County.
References
NGMDB product
Counties Cumberland - Ocean