SURFICIAL GEOLOGIC MAP OF NINETY-SIX NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE, NINETY SIX 7.5 MINUTE QUADRANGLE, SOUTH CAROLINA

Ninety-Six National Historic Site, located in Greenwood County, South Carolina, site of a major Revolutionary War battle and siege, covers roughly 1022 acres of fields and mixed deciduous and pine forest land. A surficial geologic map of the site was created in conjunction with the National Park Service and the Geocorps program. Due to the paucity of rock outcrops located within the park boundary, we utilized soil, outcrops, and local float to draw correlations between soils and possible parent rock. By characterizing soils present in proximity to available rock material, a reasonable assumption could be made to determine the type of parent rock material underlying areas of the park. Fine to medium-grained unfoliated biotite metagranite is the predominant rock type present within the park. Other rock-types found include porphyritic metagranite, felsic gneiss, biotite gneiss, diorite, and diabase. Soil particle size and color were also utilized in order to draw possible correlations between the parent rock and surface materials. Most of the park soils are a sandy clay loam at 20 cm depth with color variation between 2.5YR through 10YR in the Munsell Color Chart. Soil characteristics suggest that most of the park is underlain by biotite metagranite cut by several small diabase dikes. In the southeastern corner, fine grained quartz metagranite porphyry crops out along the north facing slope to Ninety Six creek and biotite metagranite and biotite gneiss crop out in the creek. The map includes polygons of soil types that are believed to have been derived from the parent rock material.