The Hamilton 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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Hamilton’s center stands about 1,200 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,060 ft to 1,310 ft, a difference of 250 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Vista Mountain, about 1,550 ft, 13 miles south-southwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Paluxy Sand and Glen Rose Limestone, undivided (sandstone, claystone), from the Early Cretaceous, 100 to 145 million years old.
The section below crosses 3 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 37×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Sandstone, claystone. Age: Early Cretaceous, 100 to 145 million years old. About 13 mi of the line.
Limestone, shale. Age: Early Cretaceous, 100 to 145 million years old. About 11 mi of the line.
Fine-detrital, coarse-detrital. Age: Holocene, less than 12,000 years old. About 0.5 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale.
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 Hamilton reaches the Gulf of America by way of Pecan Creek, the Leon, the Little River and the Brazos: about 580 river miles.
Lake on the way: Belton Lake.
320 miles of the trip are on the Brazos.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Hamilton; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
