New England Geological Hiking Guide
Welcome to our Senior Project!
Over the past month, we’ve explored various mountains and state parks in New England and researched the geology of each area. We've both thoroughly enjoyed spending time in nature and learning about the geological history of our surroundings. We hope this website will inspire you to explore some of the incredible hikes in this region, as well as offer you some interesting information about the rocks and formations you can visit. Enjoy!
We would like to extend a huge thank you to our faculty advisor, Ms. Latham. She taught us how to take notes in the field, met with us regularly to present on various topics, and provided us with essential resources and reference books. Ms. Latham, we truly admire your passion for this field. Thank you!
-Christian Westphal and Wilder Crosier
A Very Brief History of New England's Geology
New England has a rich geological history, and we've been privileged to both learn and explore it for the last month! Our area’s history spans roughly one billion years, and, over this massive span of time, continental collisions and tectonic action have formed New England’s terrain.
Supercontinents, formed by tectonic collisions between microcontinents, have created the geology of this region (1). Converging plates formed mountains such as the White Mountains, and subducted plates led to ancient island arcs (chains of volcanos). One of these volcanos, in fact, was the Great Blue Hill! (2)
In addition to plate tectonics, the geology of New England has been greatly impacted by erosion and glaciation. The last mountain building event in New England occurred roughly 250 million years ago (mya), and, since then, weather and water have worn down our mountains, cutting into some of our bedrock.
Very recently -- at least in terms of geologic time -- New England experienced the Last Glacial Period: around 23,000 years ago, New England was completely covered in 0.5 to 2 miles of ice! Glaciers flowed and eroded much of the area, forming unique u-shaped valleys, such as one near Franconia Notch, and other depressions and basins. As the glaciers receded from New England roughly 12,000 years ago, they covered the area with landforms and deposits such as the Quechee Gorge and the drumlins at World’s End (1,3).
(1) Skehan, J. W. (2001). Roadside geology of Massachusetts. Missoula, Montana: Mountain Press Pub. Co.
(2) Latham, J. (2021). Earth Structure/Plate Tectonics. Google Slides Presentation. Delivered in-person.
(3) Latham, J. (2021). MA_Glaciers and glaciation. Google Slides Presentation. Delivered in-person.
Our first 'big' hike on May 6, 2021, with views to Mt. Lincoln's summit. Though the day had cleared up by the time of this picture, we spent the first half of our hike in freezing temperatures, slipping on snow and ice along the trail, and dealing with limited visibility. You can still see ice on Christian's hat.
Our final hike on June 2, 2021. This picture was taken on the summit of Mount Passaconway, another 4000-footer in New Hampshire's White Mountain range. With temperatures at 65 degrees, the sun out, and an intensely green landscape spreading out thousands of feet below, we had a very nice end to our senior project!
Note: The geological information on the following pages comes from reference books and websites we have used over the month. We've used an endnote format and linked our sources at the bottom of each page, and we recommend checking out some of these sources because they provide additional interesting information (anything underlined is a hyperlink). Other than maps and diagrams (for which we've provided a citation), we've taken all the pictures on this site ourselves. Finally, if you choose to do some of these hikes, we highly recommend the 'AllTrails' app. AllTrails gives you multiple options for hikes at each location. The app includes maps with GPS, mileage, elevation gain, parking information, and reviews for every hike.