The Ellsworth 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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Ellsworth’s center stands about 2,360 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,110 ft to 2,970 ft, a difference of 1,860 ft: steep hill country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Mount Moosilauke, about 4,790 ft, 8 miles north-northwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Littleton Formation, Lower unnamed member (metasedimentary), from the Early Devonian, 394 to 422 million years old.
The section below crosses 8 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 5×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Metasedimentary. Age: Early Devonian, 394 to 422 million years old. About 9 mi of the line.
Granodiorite. Age: Early Devonian, 394 to 422 million years old. About 7 mi of the line.
Granite. Age: Late Devonian, 359 to 384 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Pelitic-schist, metasandstone. Age: Silurian, 434 to 445 million years old. About 0.9 mi of the line.
Granofels, calc-silicate-rock, pelitic-schist. Age: Silurian, 422 to 428 million years old. About 0.9 mi of the line.
Granodiorite. Age: Early Devonian, 394 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. 2 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 Ellsworth reaches the Atlantic Ocean by way of West Branch Brook, the Pemigewasset and the Merrimack: about 160 river miles.
120 miles of the trip are on the Merrimack.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Ellsworth; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
