The Castalia 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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4.87 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1893. The next wettest, 3.70 inches, fell in 1975.
Castalia’s center stands about 310 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 200 ft to 360 ft, a difference of 160 ft: gently rolling country.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Granitic Rock, from the Late Mississippian to Permian, 265 to 325 million years old.
The section below crosses 9 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.
Granitic. Age: Late Mississippian to Permian, 265 to 325 million years old. About 13 mi of the line.
Slate, argillite. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Gravel, sand. Age: Tertiary, 2.6 to 66 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Granitic. Age: Early Pennsylvanian to Permian, 270 to 320 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Metabasalt. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Granitic. Age: Early Pennsylvanian to Permian, 270 to 320 million years old. About 0.7 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale. 3 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 Castalia reaches Pamlico Sound and the Atlantic Ocean by way of Terry Branch, Tumbling Run, Sandy Creek, Swift Creek, the Tar and the Pamlico: about 150 river miles.
60 miles of the trip are on the Tar.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Castalia; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Castalia has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 90° in July; winter nights fall to about 27° in January. About 48 inches of rain fall in a normal year, with about 2 inches of snow.
On November 14 Castalia normally reaches 63° and falls to 36°. The record high is 83°, in 1955; the record low 17°, in 1976. The most rain on this date, 1.08 in, fell in 1997.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1893 at Louisburg, 14 miles west. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
