The Howland 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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Howland’s center stands about 190 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 120 ft to 260 ft, a difference of 140 ft: gently rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Little Mattamiscontis Mountain, about 1,110 ft, 14 miles north.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Silurian - Ordovician Vassalboro Formation (sandstone), from the Late Ordovician to Silurian, 428 to 459 million years old.
The section below crosses 6 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 38×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Sandstone. Age: Late Ordovician to Silurian, 428 to 459 million years old. About 10 mi of the line.
Schist, slate. Age: Silurian, 428 to 445 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Granite. Age: Devonian, 359 to 422 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Granodiorite. Age: Devonian, 359 to 422 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Quartzite, calc-silicate-rock. Age: Silurian to Devonian, 359 to 445 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Quartz-diorite. Age: Devonian, 359 to 422 million years old. About 0.8 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 Howland reaches the Atlantic Ocean by way of the Piscataquis and the Penobscot: about 65 river miles.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Howland; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
