The Chittenden 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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Chittenden’s center stands about 2,090 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,230 ft to 3,270 ft, a difference of 2,040 ft: mountain country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Killington Peak, about 4,190 ft, 13 miles south-southeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Tyson Formation - quartz-pebble phyllite and wacke member (phyllite, metagraywacke), from the Neoproterozoic to Early Cambrian, 521 to 1,000 million years old.
The section below crosses 21 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 7×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Metagraywacke, conglomerate, phyllite. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Metagraywacke, muscovite-schist, phyllite. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Granofels, quartzite. Age: Cambrian to Early Ordovician, 471 to 542 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Phyllite, muscovite-schist. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Phyllite, metagraywacke. Age: Neoproterozoic to Early Cambrian, 521 to 1,000 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Phyllite. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 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. 15 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.
Chittenden straddles the St. Lawrence Divide. Rain on the southwest side runs to the St. Lawrence River; most of the rest goes to Long Island Sound and the Atlantic Ocean.
From the center of town, a raindrop reaches Long Island Sound and the Atlantic Ocean by way of Michigan Brook, the Tweed, the White River and the Connecticut: about 260 river miles. One that lands on the southwest side reaches the St. Lawrence River by way of Hewitt Brook, East Creek, Otter Creek and the Richelieu: about 230 river miles. The St. Lawrence carries it on to the Atlantic.
220 miles of the trip are on the Connecticut.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Chittenden; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
