Roundtop Hill (Maryland)

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Roundtop Hill
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Roundtop Hill
Location of Roundtop Hill in Maryland
Highest point
Elevation 1,358 feet (410 m) [1]
Prominence 650 feet (200 m)
Coordinates 39°41′N78°19′W / 39.68°N 78.32°W / 39.68; -78.32 Coordinates: 39°41′N78°19′W / 39.68°N 78.32°W / 39.68; -78.32
Geography
Location Washington County, Maryland, U.S.
Parent range Allegheny Mountains, part of the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians
Topo map USGS Hancock (PA and MD) Quadrangle

Roundtop Hill is a mountain in Washington County, Maryland, southwest of the town of Hancock. The elevation at the summit is 1,358 feet (410 m).

Washington County, Maryland county in Maryland, United States

Washington County is located in the western part of the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2010 census, the population was 147,430. Its county seat is Hagerstown. Washington County was the first county in the United States to be named for the Revolutionary War general George Washington. Washington County is one of three Maryland counties recognized by the Appalachian Regional Commission as being part of Appalachia.

Maryland State of the United States of America

Maryland is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east. The state's largest city is Baltimore, and its capital is Annapolis. Among its occasional nicknames are Old Line State, the Free State, and the Chesapeake Bay State. It is named after the English queen Henrietta Maria, known in England as Queen Mary.

Hancock, Maryland Town in Maryland, United States

Hancock is a town in Washington County, Maryland, United States. The population was 1,546 at the 2010 census. The Western Maryland community is notable for being located at the narrowest part of the state. The north-south distance from the Pennsylvania state line to the West Virginia state line is only 1.8 miles (2.9 km) at Hancock.

Contents

Geography

Unlike surrounding mountains, Roundtop Hill is not part of an extended ridge system, and is only about 2 miles (3.2 km) in length. It is located just under 1 mile (1.6 km) from the crest of Tonoloway Ridge, about 3.5 miles (5.6 km) southwest of Hancock. Its presence causes a large bend in the Potomac River, which curves around its eastern slope. Much of the eastern face is part of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park and the canal bed and tow path pass along the narrow bank at its base.

Tonoloway Ridge is a stratigraphic ridge that runs southwest northeast through the U.S. states of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and West Virginia. It reaches its highest elevation above mean sea level of 1,292 feet (393.8 m) at a knob on its southern end in Morgan County, West Virginia. Tonoloway Ridge is separated by gaps at Great Cacapon on the Potomac River and at Little Tonoloway Creek where it is traversed by Interstate 68 in Maryland.

Potomac River river in the mid-Atlantic United States

The Potomac River is located within the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and flows from the Potomac Highlands into the Chesapeake Bay. The river is approximately 405 miles (652 km) long, with a drainage area of about 14,700 square miles (38,000 km2). In terms of area, this makes the Potomac River the fourth largest river along the Atlantic coast of the United States and the 21st largest in the United States. Over 5 million people live within the Potomac watershed.

Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park National Historical Park located in the District of Columbia and the states of Maryland and West Virginia

The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park is located in the District of Columbia and the states of Maryland and West Virginia. The park was established in 1961 as a National Monument by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to preserve the neglected remains of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and many of its original structures. The canal and towpath trail extends along the Potomac River from Georgetown, Washington, D.C., to Cumberland, Maryland, a distance of 184.5 miles (296.9 km). In 2013, the path was designated as the first section of U.S. Bicycle Route 50.

Geology

Synclinal fold Roundtop Hill outcrop1.jpg
Synclinal fold
Anticlinal fold Roundtop Hill outcrop2.jpg
Anticlinal fold
Preserved mudcracks at Roundtop Hill Mudcracks roundtop hill MD.jpg
Preserved mudcracks at Roundtop Hill

Outstanding outcrops of the Silurian Wills Creek Formation and underlying Bloomsburg Formation are exposed along the old railroad grade at Roundtop Hill. Examples of folding, formation of cleavage, thrust faulting, and the deformation of bedded rocks are visible. About 500 feet of strata are exposed. [2]

The Silurian is a geologic period and system spanning 24.6 million years from the end of the Ordovician Period, at 443.8 million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Devonian Period, 419.2 Mya. As with other geologic periods, the rock beds that define the period's start and end are well identified, but the exact dates are uncertain by several million years. The base of the Silurian is set at a series of major Ordovician–Silurian extinction events when 60% of marine species were wiped out.

Wills Creek Formation Bedrock unit in the Eastern United States

The Silurian Wills Creek Formation is a mapped bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Bloomsburg Formation

The Silurian Bloomsburg Formation is a mapped bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Maryland. It is named for the town of Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania in which it was first described. The Bloomsburg marked the first occurrence of red sedimentary rocks in the Appalachian Basin.

Related Research Articles

Geology of the Appalachians

The geology of the Appalachians dates back to more than 480 million years ago. A look at rocks exposed in today's Appalachian Mountains reveals elongate belts of folded and thrust faulted marine sedimentary rocks, volcanic rocks and slivers of ancient ocean floor - strong evidence that these rocks were deformed during plate collision. The birth of the Appalachian ranges marks the first of several mountain building plate collisions that culminated in the construction of the supercontinent Pangaea with the Appalachians and neighboring Little Atlas near the center. These mountain ranges likely once reached elevations similar to those of the Alps and the Rocky Mountains before they were eroded.

Blue Ridge Mountains mountain range

The Blue Ridge Mountains are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains range. The mountain range is located in the eastern United States, and extends 550 miles southwest from southern Pennsylvania through Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia. This province consists of northern and southern physiographic regions, which divide near the Roanoke River gap. To the west of the Blue Ridge, between it and the bulk of the Appalachians, lies the Great Appalachian Valley, bordered on the west by the Ridge and Valley province of the Appalachian range.

Geology of the Grand Teton area

The geology of the Grand Teton area consists of some of the oldest rocks and one of the youngest mountain ranges in North America. The Teton Range, partly located in Grand Teton National Park, started to grow some 9 million years ago. An older feature, Jackson Hole, is a basin that sits aside the range.

Allegheny Front

The Allegheny Front is the major southeast- or east-facing escarpment in the Allegheny Mountains in southern Pennsylvania, western Maryland, and eastern West Virginia, USA. The Allegheny Front forms the boundary between the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians to its east and the Appalachian Plateau to its west. The Front is closely associated with the Appalachian Mountains' Eastern Continental Divide, which in this area divides the waters of the Ohio/Mississippi river system, flowing to the Gulf of Mexico, from rivers flowing into Chesapeake Bay and from there into the Atlantic Ocean.

Syncline

In structural geology, a syncline is a fold with younger layers closer to the center of the structure. A synclinorium is a large syncline with superimposed smaller folds. Synclines are typically a downward fold (synform), termed a synformal syncline, but synclines that point upwards can be found when strata have been overturned and folded.

Red Mountain (Birmingham) ridge near Birmingham, Alabama, USA

Red Mountain is a long ridge running southwest-northeast and dividing Jones Valley from Shades Valley south of Birmingham, Alabama. It is part of the Ridge-and-Valley region of the Appalachian mountains. The Red Mountain Formation of hard Silurian rock strata lies exposed in several long crests, and was named "Red Mountain" because of the rust-stained rock faces and prominent seams of red hematite iron ore. The mountain was the site of the Sloss Mines, which supplied ore to Birmingham's iron furnaces. The best displays of the mountain's geological strata occur at the Twentieth Street cut near the Vulcan statue and at the U.S. Route 31 highway cut leading into the suburb of Homewood. Most of Birmingham's television and radio stations have their transmission towers located on Red Mountain.

Sideling Hill mountain in United States of America

Sideling Hill is a long, steep, narrow mountain ridge in the Ridge-and-Valley physiographic province of the Appalachian Mountains, located in Washington County in western Maryland and adjacent West Virginia and Pennsylvania, USA. The highest point on the ridge is Fisher Point, at 2,310 feet (700 m) in Fulton County, Pennsylvania.

Old Rag Mountain mountain in United States of America

Old Rag Mountain is a 3,284 feet (1,001 m) mountain near Sperryville in Madison County, Virginia. A part of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the peak is located within Shenandoah National Park and is the most popular hiking destination within the park.

Kittatinny Mountain mountain in United States of America

Kittatinny Mountain is a long ridge traversing across northwestern New Jersey running in a northeast-southwest axis, a continuation across the Delaware Water Gap of Pennsylvania's Blue Mountain Ridge. It is the first major ridge in the far northeastern extension of the Ridge and Valley province of the Appalachian Mountains, and reaches its highest elevation, 1,803 feet, at High Point in Montague Township. Kittatinny Mountain forms the eastern side of Wallpack Valley; the western side comprises the Wallpack Ridge (highest elevation: 928 feet above sea level.

Environment of West Virginia

The Environment of West Virginia encompasses terrain and ecosystems ranging from plateaus to mountains. Most of West Virginia lies within the Appalachian mixed mesophytic forests ecoregion, while the higher elevations along the eastern border and in the panhandle lie within the Appalachian-Blue Ridge forests.

North Mountain (Virginia-West Virginia)

North Mountain is a mountain ridge within the Ridge-and-valley Appalachians in the U.S. states of Virginia and West Virginia.

Tussey Mountain mountain in United States of America

Tussey Mountain is a stratigraphic ridge in central Pennsylvania, United States, trending east of the Bald Eagle, Brush, Dunning and Evitts Mountain ridges. Its southern foot just crosses the Mason–Dixon line near Flintstone, Maryland, running north 130 km (80 mi) to the Seven Mountains of central Pennsylvania, near Tusseyville, making it one of the longest named ridges in this section of the Ridge-and-valley Appalachians. The ridge line separates Morrison Cove from the Woodcock Valley and Friends Cove from the Black Valley. Tussey Mountain lies in, and the ridge line forms parts of the borders of, Centre, Blair, Bedford and Huntingdon counties.

Geology of Pennsylvania

The Geology of Pennsylvania consists of six distinct physiographic provinces, three of which are subdivided into different sections. Each province has its own economic advantages and geologic hazards and plays an important role in shaping everyday life in the state. They are: the Atlantic Coastal Plain Province, the Piedmont Province, the New England Province, the Ridge and Valley Province, the Appalachian Plateau Province, and the Central Lowlands Province.

Tuscarora Sandstone

The Silurian Tuscarora Formation — also known as Tuscarora Sandstone or Tuscarora Quartzite — is a mapped bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia, USA.

Indian Springs, Maryland Unincorporated community in Maryland, United States

Indian Springs is an unincorporated community in western Washington County, Maryland, United States. Its population was 64 as of the 2010 census.

Simi Valley

Simi Valley is a synclinal valley in Southern California in the United States. It is an enclosed or hidden valley surrounded by mountains and hills. It is connected to the San Fernando Valley to the east by the Santa Susana Pass and the 118 freeway, and in the west the narrows of the Arroyo Simi and the Reagan Freeway connect to Moorpark and Ventura, California. The relatively flat bottom of the valley contains soils formed from shales, sandstones, and conglomerates eroded from the surrounding hills of the Santa Susana Mountains to the north, which separate Simi Valley from the Santa Clara River Valley, and the Simi Hills.

Keyser Formation

The Late Silurian to Early Devonian Keyser Formation is a mapped limestone bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Fort Wayne Moraine

The Fort Wayne Moraine is considered contemporary to the last stages of the Valparaiso Moraine. Centered on Fort Wayne, Indiana, the northern leg of the moraine is mostly overlaid by the younger Wabash Moraine angling northeastward through Williams County, Ohio. It only becomes identifiable in Lenawee County, Michigan south and northeast of Adrian before ending in the intermingling of moraines around Ann Arbor. The south and eastern leg of the moraine follows the northern bank of the St. Marys River into the State of Ohio. At the north bend of the St. Marys River, the moraine arcs northeastward through Lima, continuing in a northward arc to reach north of U.S. 30 in Hancock County to pass through Upper Sandusky, again bending to the north to end 15 miles (24 km) to 20 miles (32 km) to the northeast.

References

  1. Mountainzone
  2. The Silurian section at Roundtop Hill near Hancock, Maryland, John D. Glaser (Maryland Geological Survey). Geological Society of America Centennial Field Guide—Northeastern Section, 1987