The Crystal 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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Crystal’s center stands about 540 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 470 ft to 800 ft, a difference of 330 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Mount Chase, about 2,430 ft, 12 miles north-northwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Silurian undifferentiated pelites and sandstones (slate, sandstone), from the Silurian, 422 to 445 million years old.
The section below crosses 5 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 15×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Slate, sandstone. Age: Silurian, 422 to 445 million years old. About 13 mi of the line.
Quartzite, calc-silicate-rock. Age: Silurian to Devonian, 359 to 445 million years old. About 7 mi of the line.
Mudstone, sandstone. Age: Ordovician to Silurian, 422 to 487 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Mafic-volcanic, felsic-volcanic. Age: Ordovician, 445 to 487 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
Conglomerate, sandstone. Age: Silurian, 422 to 445 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 Crystal reaches the Atlantic Ocean by way of the Fish Stream, the West Branch Mattawamkeag, the Mattawamkeag and the Penobscot: about 170 river miles.
Lake on the way: Upper Mattawamkeag Lake.
85 miles of the trip are on the Penobscot.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Crystal; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
