The Ophir plate. Relief from Copernicus GLO-30; rivers and lakes from USGS NHD; watersheds from the USGS Watershed Boundary Dataset; roads and city limits from Census TIGER 2024.
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Ophir’s center stands about 9,720 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 9,180 ft to 13,260 ft, a difference of 4,080 ft: mountain country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Mount Wilson, about 14,100 ft, 9 miles west.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Cutler Fm (arkose, siltstone, conglomerate), from the Permian, 252 to 299 million years old.
The section below crosses 12 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 4×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Arkose, siltstone, conglomerate. Age: Permian, 252 to 299 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Andesite. Age: Late Eocene to Early Oligocene, 30 to 35 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Arkose, gravel. Age: Eocene, 34 to 56 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Unconsolidated. Age: Quaternary, less than 2.6 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Sandstone. Age: Early Cretaceous, 100 to 145 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Arkose, conglomerate, shale. Age: Carboniferous, 299 to 324 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale. 6 smaller units along the line are not listed.
Heights from Copernicus GLO-90 (a surface model: it includes buildings and tree canopy); summits from USGS GNIS; rivers from USGS NHDPlus HR; rock from the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation.
A raindrop that lands in Ophir reaches the Gulf of California by way of the Howard Fork, the South Fork San Miguel, the San Miguel, the Dolores and the Colorado: about 1,230 river miles.
Lakes on the way: Lake Mead, Lake Powell, Lake Mohave and Lake Havasu.
Seldom reaches the sea. Dams and canals now take nearly all of the Colorado before its old delta in Mexico.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Ophir; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
