The Halifax 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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Halifax’s center stands about 1,600 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 910 ft to 1,910 ft, a difference of 1,000 ft: steep hill country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Haystack Mountain, about 3,420 ft, 13 miles northwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Northfield Formation (phyllite, mica-schist), from the Silurian to Early Devonian, 394 to 425 million years old.
The section below crosses 14 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 9×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Gneiss. Age: Mesoproterozoic, 1.2 to 1.6 billion years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Schist, phyllite. Age: Early Devonian, 394 to 422 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Phyllite, limestone. Age: Silurian to Early Devonian, 394 to 425 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Phyllite, mica-schist. Age: Silurian to Early Devonian, 394 to 425 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Granofels. Age: Neoproterozoic to Early Cambrian, 521 to 1,000 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Phyllite, schist. Age: Early Devonian, 394 to 422 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. 8 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 Halifax reaches Long Island Sound and the Atlantic Ocean by way of Sperry Brook, the East Branch North, the Deerfield and the Connecticut: about 150 river miles.
120 miles of the trip are on the Connecticut.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Halifax; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
