May 1, 2012
Monday Geology Picture: Chesterfield Gorge, New Hampshire
Posted by Evelyn Mervine
This week’s geology picture was taken in the Chesterfield Gorge, which is located just a few minutes from my parents’ house in southern New Hampshire. I would often explore and play at the gorge as a child. I used to like to throw things into the gorge and watch them go over the waterfalls. I once duct-taped a Princess Leia figurine into a plastic toy kayak and watched her go over the falls. Miraculously, Leia made it over the falls, and I retrieved her. She did lose her stick paddle, though. Also, her arm was also falling off a little bit, but I managed to repair her with quick field surgery.
The gorge is an interesting place, geologically. I remember being fascinated when I first read, as a child, that the gorge was created quickly by movement along a fault, not by the slow carving of a stream. You can see the evidence of the fault very clearly in the photograph above. You can see that the tilted, offset layers still have sharp edges; they have not yet been worn away by many years of erosion by water.
I’m headed up to New Hampshire next week after I hand in my thesis revisions. Perhaps I’ll visit the gorge again and share more pictures and geological explanation. Sadly, my mother tells me that these days one must be careful when visiting the gorge. In my childhood, I could play there with my friends and be perfectly safe. Recently, however, the gorge has been the site of some illegal activities and dealings, so one has to be a little bit more careful when visiting, and children definitely shouldn’t play there alone. Nevertheless, the geology is so spectacular that I may bring Dana Hunter there when she visits me next week. I can’t wait for Dana to visit. You can expect some fun posts about her trip in the next few weeks!
Looking for some more information on the geology of the gorge, I find this website: http://www.tmclark.com/ChestGorge.html
Any ideas about the different geologic models for the formation of the gorge? Callan (and others), what do you think about faulting?
Good geologic understanding and interpretation. Keep on exploring more.
[…] Today, we visited three geologic sites of interest in Massachusetts and New Hampshire: the dinosaur footprints along the Connecticut River near Holyoke, MA; the Rock, Fossil, & Dinosaur Shop; and finally the Chesterfield Gorge. […]
[…] picture yesterday. Better late than never, I suppose. Above is a picture of Dana and I at the Chesterfield Gorge. Be sure to follow my descriptions of our georneys. I’ve posted Part I and Part II […]
[…] to our secret geologist lair on Franklin Pierce Lake. On the drive back, we stopped at the Chesterfield Gorge. Although there has recently been some illegal activitiy at the gorge, during our visit Dana and I […]