The Lien 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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Lien’s center stands about 1,160 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,120 ft to 1,230 ft, a difference of 110 ft: gently rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Runestone Hill, about 1,400 ft, 15 miles east-southeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Schist of sedimentary protolith, from the Neoarchean, 2.5 to 2.8 billion 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 57×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Schist, paragneiss. Age: Neoarchean, 2.5 to 2.8 billion years old. About 11 mi of the line.
Felsic-volcanic. Age: Neoarchean, 2.5 to 2.8 billion years old. About 11 mi of the line.
Schist. Age: Neoarchean, 2.5 to 2.8 billion years old. About 3 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.
Lien straddles the Laurentian Divide. Rain on the southwest side runs to Hudson Bay; most of the rest goes to the Gulf of America.
From the center of town, a raindrop reaches the Gulf of America by way of the Pomme de Terre, the Minnesota and the Mississippi: about 2,210 river miles. One that lands on the southwest side reaches Hudson Bay by way of the Mustinka, the Bois de Sioux, the Red River of the North and the Nelson: about 1,290 river miles. Past the border it runs north through Canada to Hudson Bay.
Lake on the way: Lake Pepin.
1,750 miles of the trip are on the Mississippi.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Lien; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
