The Augusta Springs 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.
Augusta Springs’s center stands about 1,650 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,540 ft to 3,220 ft, a difference of 1,680 ft: steep hill country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Great North Mountain, about 4,460 ft, 4 miles north.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Ridgeley Sandstone, Helderberg and Cayugan Groups (limestone), from the Silurian to Devonian, 359 to 445 million years old.
The section below crosses 12 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.
Dolostone, limestone. Age: Ordovician, 445 to 487 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Shale, sandstone. Age: Devonian, 359 to 422 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Shale, sandstone. Age: Devonian, 359 to 422 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Shale, black-shale. Age: Devonian, 359 to 422 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Limestone. Age: Ordovician, 445 to 487 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Sandstone. Age: Devonian, 359 to 422 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. 6 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 Augusta Springs reaches Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean by way of the Little Calfpasture, the Maury and the James: about 340 river miles.
280 miles of the trip are on the James.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Augusta Springs; river miles along the main stem, rounded.