THE SEDIMENTS OF DUPONT ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION CENTER, WILMINGTON, DELAWARE

An undergraduate research project for Physical Geology at Delaware Community College. Samples were collected at a local restored Wildlife Refuge location, located in Wilmington, Delaware on the Christina River. This site is a tidal marshland, that before restoration was heavily polluted with different chemicals that were being dumped into the Christina River, which in turn leached into the surrounding wetlands. The Wilmington Riverfront Development Corporation worked on cleaning and rezoning the Wilmington Riverfront, for both commercial and environmental uses. The site was rebuilt, being that the river was dredged and cleaned, to bring back the natural marshland. The site was finished being built in 2009, yet is still being maintained, and cleaned for the continual preservation of the marshlands.The site is directly located on the Christina River, which is connected to the Delaware River to the East, and two major creeks, the Red and White clay creeks to the West. Each of these samples has come from different locations throughout the refuge. The locations yielded to different sediments, organic material, and calcium amounts determined by where they were found along the site, and what was approximately close to the river and in the marshland itself. An overall similarity between all three samples was that they were supersaturated, and loss of ignition had very little CaCO2 and was very organic. This all can be supported as the site is a tidal marshland, which is underwater at times, and has a large percentage of organic material being both flora and fauna.