The Springer 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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Springer’s center stands about 5,800 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 5,750 ft to 6,060 ft, a difference of 310 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Rayado Mesa, about 7,640 ft, 15 miles west-southwest.
The section below crosses 7 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 12×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Shale. Age: Late Cretaceous, 72 to 90 million years old. About 14 mi of the line.
Unconsolidated. Age: Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 0.1 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Limestone. Age: Late Cretaceous, 87 to 94 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Basalt, andesite. Age: Pliocene, 2.6 to 5.3 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Shale. Age: Late Cretaceous, 90 to 94 million years old. About 0.9 mi of the line.
Unconsolidated. Age: Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 2.6 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. 1 smaller unit 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 Springer reaches the Gulf of America by way of the Cimarron, the Canadian, the Arkansas and the Mississippi: about 1,900 river miles.
Lakes on the way: Conchas Lake, Murray Lake, Ozark Lake and Ute Reservoir.
720 miles of the trip are on the Canadian.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Springer; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
