The Vernon 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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Vernon’s center stands about 630 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 510 ft to 1,040 ft, a difference of 530 ft: hilly country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Tassel Hill, about 1,960 ft, 15 miles southeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Lockport Group (dolostone), from the Silurian, 425 to 428 million years old.
The section below crosses 11 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 15×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Black-shale. Age: Middle Devonian, 388 to 394 million years old. About 6 mi of the line.
Shale. Age: Silurian, 434 to 445 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Black-shale. Age: Middle Ordovician, 459 to 471 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Siltstone, shale. Age: Late Ordovician, 445 to 459 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Shale. Age: Silurian, 422 to 428 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
Shale. Age: Middle Devonian, 384 to 394 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale. 5 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.
Vernon straddles the St. Lawrence Divide. Rain on the southeast side runs to New York Harbor and the Atlantic Ocean; most of the rest goes to Lake Ontario.
From the center of town, a raindrop reaches Lake Ontario by way of Sconondoa Creek, Oneida Creek, the Oneida and the Oswego: about 85 river miles. From the lake it goes down the St. Lawrence to the Atlantic. One that lands on the southeast side reaches New York Harbor and the Atlantic Ocean by way of Deans Creek, the Mohawk and the Hudson: about 290 river miles.
Lake on the way: Oneida Lake.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Vernon; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
