The U.S. Geological Survey is conducting a series of investigations of aquifers throughout the United States as a part of the RASA (Regional Aquifer System Analysis) program. These investigations provide a comprehensive regional understanding of groundwater resources throughout the Nation. The Coastal Plain aquifers in South Carolina are being studied as a part of this program. An important part of a description of the groundwater resources is the development of a geohydrologic framework. Such a framework delineates the aquifers through which groundwater flows and the confining units which retard the flow of groundwater between aquifers. The Coastal Plain of South Carolina is underlain by a wedge of sediments that thickens from its inner margin, the Fall Line, to the coast and consists of sand, silt, clay, and limestone of Late Cretaceous to Holocene age. These sediments are underlain by pre-Cretaceous rocks consisting of consolidated sedimentary rocks of Triassic age and a complex of metamorphic and igneous rocks similar to those found near the surface in the Piedmont province of the State. The geohydrologic framework that divides the sediments of the South Carolina Coastal Plain into the Coastal Plain aquifer system is delineated by eleven geohydrologic sections and four maps showing the configuration of the top or base of individual aquifers. Although flow within the Coastal Plain aquifer system is three dimensional, simplifying the system by dividing it into a framework of discrete hydrologic units can aid significantly in understanding the hydrology of the system. This framework is the basis for the aquifers used in potentiometric mapping, transmissivity mapping, geochemical analysis, and groundwater flow modeling for the South Carolina RASA program. (Lantz-PTT)
