Northern Atlantic Coastal Plain aquifer system
Science Center Objects
The Northern Atlantic Coastal Plain (NACP) aquifer system occupies a land area of more than 30,000 square miles and a total area of 50,000 square miles along the eastern seaboard of the United States from Long Island, New York, southward to the northeastern part of North Carolina.
WAUSP Northern Atlantic Coastal Plain Aquifer System photo 13
The aquifer system is composed of a seaward-dipping wedge of mostly unconsolidated layers of clay, silt, sand, and gravel ranging in age from Early Cretaceous to Holocene and overlying a basement of Precambrian to Paleozoic consolidated bedrock. The NACP sedimentary wedge dips and thickens to the south and east from its thin western limit in the Fall Zone, the transition between the igneous and metamorphic rocks of the Piedmont Province and the sedimentary environment of the Coastal Plain. The Coastal Plain sediments are several miles thick where they terminate along the edge of the Atlantic Continental Shelf, though the extent of the freshwater part of the aquifer system is more limited and reaches a maximum thickness of 1,000 to 3,000 feet in the approximate vicinity of the shoreline. The NACP sedimentary wedge forms a complex groundwater system in which strata of sand and gravel function predominantly as aquifers, and those of silt and clay function as confining units. Ten regional aquifers and nine interlayered confining units have been defined at the regional scale.
Data files delineating the NACP aquifers and confining units are supplemental to Hydrogeology and Hydrologic Conditions of the Northern Atlantic Coastal Plain Aquifer System from Long Island, New York, to North Carolina (USGS Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5133). This report includes a detailed description of the regional hydrogeologic units. A description of the methods used to create the digital data files of the hydrogeologic units can be found in Digital Elevations and Extents of Regional Hydrogeologic Units of the Northern Atlantic Coastal Plain Aquifer System in New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina (Data Series 996).
Click on the links below to download files for this aquifer. For information about the available file types, see Aquifer data: Explanation of spatial data formats.
Hydrogeologic Unit Extents and Surface Elevations (shapefiles, ASCII, raster, and metadata)
Land Surface Elevation (ASCII, raster, and metadata)
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Date published: March 8, 2021Status: ActivePrincipal Aquifers of the United States
This website compiles USGS resources and data related to principal aquifers including Aquifer Basics, principal aquifers maps and GIS data, and the National Aquifer Code Reference List.
Contacts: Ask USGSAttribution: Water Resources -
Date published: February 28, 2019Status: ActiveNational Water Census: Regional Groundwater Availability Studies
The National Water Census includes regional analysis of groundwater availability, enabling information to be integrated and consistent so the resource can be analyzed and understood on an aquifer–wide scale. The NWC also seeks to increase capacity to integrate groundwater and surface water into watershed-level assessments of water availability.
Attribution: Water Resources
Digital elevations and extents of regional hydrogeologic units in the Northern Atlantic Coastal Plain aquifer system from Long Island, New York, to North Carolina
Digital geospatial datasets of the extents and top elevations of the regional hydrogeologic units of the Northern Atlantic Coastal Plain aquifer system from Long Island, New York, to northeastern North Carolina were developed to provide an updated hydrogeologic framework to support analysis of groundwater resources. The 19 regional hydrogeologic...
Pope, Jason P.; Andreasen, David C.; Mcfarland, E. Randolph; Watt, Martha K.
Hydrogeology and hydrologic conditions of the Northern Atlantic Coastal Plain aquifer System from Long Island, New York, to North Carolina
The seaward-dipping sedimentary wedge that underlies the Northern Atlantic Coastal Plain forms a complex groundwater system. This major source of water provides for public and domestic supply and serves as a vital source of freshwater for industrial and agricultural uses throughout the region. Population increases and land-use and climate changes...
Masterson, John P.; Pope, Jason P.; Monti, Jack; Nardi, Mark R.; Finkelstein, Jason S.; McCoy, Kurt J.
Ground Water Atlas of the United States
PrefaceThe Ground Water Atlas of the United States presents a comprehensive summary of the Nation's ground-water resources and is a basic reference for the location, geography, geology, and hydrologic characteristics of the major aquifers in the Nation. The information was collected by the U.S. Geological Survey and other agencies during the...
Principal aquifers [of the United States]
No abstract available.
Miller, James A.