The title is very tantalizing, isn’t it? I grew up just a few miles from New Hampshire, and studied earth science in undergraduate school. I can tell you that in our courses taught by very fine professors of geology, I never heard anyone make that claim. It would take many years after my undergraduate studies for geologists to develop a theory that would support the claim. And of course you know that the theory that would be used to support the New Hampshire claim is the Theory of Plate Tectonics. More about this later.

One of the things that I have been enjoying is driving with my wife from Georgia to New England via Tennessee, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York. The trip, in either direction, is breathtaking.

For a number of years, I taught geology and earth science, and in that endeavor had the opportunity to take groups of students (youth as well as adults) on field trips, and courses in Georgia and to the Colorado Rockies.

In a series of Blog entries I will take a look at the Geology of a number of states that you would encounter if you made the trip from Georgia to New England or return. You will be able to keep up with these Blogs by clicking on this link.

In the first post that I devoted to geology, “The Earthquake of 1906 and the New Geology,” I introduced here the unifying concept of Plate Tectonics which has influenced the way geological features have been explained. I will try and incorporate these ideas in these discussions.

We typically start our trip back to Georgia from New Hampshire in the area near Concord. You probably know that New Hampshire is the “granite state.” It also has many other igneous as well as metamorphic rocks, but it is hard to find sedimentaries. It is also famous for the White Mountains, for Mount Washington, and “Mount Monadnock.

My brother-in-law, who lives in Vermont, was telling me how different Vermont was from New Hampshire. Vermont, he said, is just greener, and there are many differences in the rocks. And, it is true, Vermont and New Hampshire are very different geologically. Little did we know many years ago, that these two states were the edges of two continents (continent-continent convergence–see image below) that collided, (known as the Acadian Mountain Building Cycle resulting in the formation of the White Mountains in New Hampshire and the Green Mountains in Vermont) and then on the eastern edge of New Hampshire, the continent began to spread apart, and continued for millions of years being separated by the Atlantic Ocean. No wonder the geology is so different.

For an excellent discussion of this, I recommend Roadside Geology of Vermont and New Hampshire (pp. 23 – 34).

In addition to the fact that New Hampshire is the result of an ancient collision between two very old continents, New Hampshire’s geology and terrain have also been determined by The Ice Age, that great Pleistocene event in which one to two mile high continental glaciers advanced and retreated four times over the present land we now call New England. The graphic from PBS shows the general movement over North America during the Pleistocene.

As you drive around New Hampshire (or Vermont), you will find evidence of various features that were created by the active glacier that spread into and retreated from the region. Here are a few you will find.
Drumlins. These are streamlined hills of glacial till which have been shaped into these hills by the weight and movement of the ice.
Kettles. These are pits (holes like a basin) formed when a hunk of ice is left behind by the receding glacier in glacial outwash. The pit, filled with water later became known as a “kettle lake.”
Glacial lakes: New England has many glacial lakes, including in New Hampshire, Lake Winnipesaukee, and in Vermont, Lake Champlain.
Glacial Erratics. These are boulders that have been moved from its original position and deposited in remote locations. There are many examples in the region.
Cirques. These are bowl-shaped rock amphittheaters in the sides of mountains created by alpine glaciers prior to the arrival (and perhaps after the retreat) of continental glacial ice.

What is your favorite location or geological feature in New Hampshire? If you are a teacher, how would you use material like this to teach about the geology of your state?