The Poncha Springs 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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Poncha Springs’s center stands about 7,470 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 7,220 ft to 9,770 ft, a difference of 2,550 ft: mountain country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Mount Antero, about 14,180 ft, 14 miles northwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Gravels and alluviums (gravel, unconsolidated), from the Pleistocene, less than 0.5 million years old.
The section below crosses 8 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 3×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Gneiss. Age: Paleoproterozoic, 1.6 to 2.5 billion years old. About 9 mi of the line.
Gravel, unconsolidated. Age: Pleistocene, 0.2 to 1.6 million years old. About 8 mi of the line.
Gabbro, diorite. Age: Paleoproterozoic, 1.6 to 2.5 billion years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Gravel, unconsolidated. Age: Pleistocene, less than 0.5 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Siltstone, sandstone, conglomerate. Age: Miocene to Pliocene, 2.6 to 23 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
Mafic-hypabyssal, felsic-hypabyssal. Age: Eocene to Miocene, 5.3 to 56 million years old. About 0.9 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale. 2 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 Poncha Springs reaches the Gulf of America by way of the Arkansas and the Mississippi: about 1,960 river miles.
Lakes on the way: Murray Lake and Ozark Lake.
1,070 miles of the trip are on the Arkansas.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Poncha Springs; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
