The Gettysburg-Newark Lowland Section consists mainly of rolling low hills and valleys developed on red sedimentary rock. Almost all of the underlying sedimentary rock dips to the north or northwest and many of the smaller drainageways are oriented normal to the direction of dip so that some of the topography has a northeast-southwest linearity. However, the basic drain-age pattern is dendritic.
Soils are usually red and are often have a visually striking contrast to the green of vegetation.
Relief is generally in the area of 100 to 200 feet, but locally is up to 600 feet on some of the isolated hills. Elevation in the Section ranges from 40 to 1,335 feet. The Section is made up of sedimentary rocks that were deposited in a long, narrow, inland basin that formed when the continents of North America and Africa separated more than 200 million years ago. The Section occurs in southeastern Pennsylvania and extends from the Pennsylvania-Maryland boundary in Adams County across parts of York, Dauphin, Lancaster, Lebanon, Berks, Chester, and Montgomery Counties to the Delaware River in Bucks County. The Section is crossed by many roads along which the character of the Section can be viewed.