Updated: May 17, 2022
By Maryland Geological Survey

Ground Water and Wells in the Maryland Piedmont

The Piedmont physiographic province in Maryland is located between the Blue Ridge and Coastal Plain provinces (figure 1). The Piedmont is underlain primarily by metamorphic and igneous crystalline rocks, with smaller amounts of sedimentary rocks. Over time the rocks have been folded, faulted, and fractured to varying degrees, and the region is commonly referred to as fractured-rock terrane (Nutter and Otton, 1969). The boundary between the Piedmont and Coastal Plain provinces is known as the Fall Line, and it separates the hard, fractured rocks of the Piedmont from the unconsolidated sediments of the Coastal Plain.

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