The Lost Nation 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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Lost Nation’s center stands about 750 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 690 ft to 900 ft, a difference of 210 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Goose Rock, about 930 ft, 13 miles north-northwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Scotch Grove Formation (dolostone), from the Silurian, 431 to 440 million years old.
The section below crosses 3 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 64×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Dolostone. Age: Silurian, 431 to 440 million years old. About 20 mi of the line.
Dolostone. Age: Late Ordovician to Silurian, 434 to 447 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Shale, dolostone. Age: Late Ordovician, 447 to 454 million years old. About 0.5 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale.
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 Lost Nation reaches the Gulf of America by way of the Wapsipinicon and the Mississippi: about 1,540 river miles.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Lost Nation; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
