The Waterville Valley 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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Waterville Valley’s center stands about 1,540 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,340 ft to 3,580 ft, a difference of 2,240 ft: mountain country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Mount Bond, about 4,660 ft, 14 miles north.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Conway Granite, from the Middle Jurassic to Late Jurassic, 145 to 175 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 6×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Granite. Age: Middle Jurassic to Late Jurassic, 145 to 175 million years old. About 10 mi of the line.
Granite. Age: Early Jurassic to Middle Jurassic, 164 to 202 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Granodiorite. Age: Early Devonian, 394 to 422 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Tonalite. Age: Early Devonian, 394 to 422 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Metaclastic. Age: Silurian, 434 to 445 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Pelitic-schist, metasandstone. Age: Silurian, 434 to 445 million years old. About 2 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 Waterville Valley reaches the Atlantic Ocean by way of Cascade Brook, the Mad, the Pemigewasset and the Merrimack: about 170 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 Waterville Valley; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
