Author(s)

O.P. Bricker, W.L. Newell & N.S. Simon

Abstract

The ground water of the Pocomoke River basin is rich in reduced iron. This is particularly true in the Nassawango Creek sub-basin where bog iron deposits along the flood plain of the Nassawango Creek were stripped in the mid-1800’s to supply an iron smelter near the town of Snow Hill, Maryland. The rate of bog iron formation was so rapid that areas could be re-stripped in a matter of few years. Bog iron is still forming in this area and in other parts of the Pocomoke Basin. Ground water has been measured with ferrous iron concentrations in excess of 20 ppm. When this water emerges at the surface or is discharged into the river system it rapidly oxidizes to an amorphous particulate iron oxyhydroxide which in time crystallizes to goethite. The iron in this system is important for at least two reasons: 1) iron oxyhydroxides strongly sorb phosphorous and many trace metals, 2) the i

Keywords