page_title: Northeast Kingdom
section_title: Geology
hierarchical_section_title: Northeast Kingdom / Geography / Geology
caption_attribution_description: English: Jay Peak, Vermont, seen from Big Jay mountain
context_page_description: The Northeast Kingdom is the northeast corner of the U.S. state of Vermont, comprising Essex, Orleans and Caledonia counties and having a population at the 2010 census of 64,764. In Vermont, the written term "NEK" is often used. The term "Northeast Kingdom" is attributed to George D. Aiken, former Governor of Vermont and a U.S. senator, who first used the term in a 1949 speech. The area is often referred to by Vermonters simply as "The Kingdom."
  Because of its three-county extent, it includes several "gateway" towns: at the southeastern corner, St. Johnsbury, just a few miles from the New Hampshire border; to the north, Newport and Derby, close to the Canada–US border; and to the southwest, Hardwick and Danville.
  Interstate 91, Interstate 93, U.S. Route 5, and U.S. Route 2 are the main roads that connect travelers to the Northeast Kingdom.
context_section_description: Although Vermont is known as the Green Mountain State, the Northeast Kingdom lies outside that geological formation and is based on a set of long-ago volcanic islands, compressed during collision with the Taconic orogeny. Views and vistas differ sharply from those of the state's central mountain spine.
  The presence of kame terraces in the counties are of interest in connection with the glacial drift that gave the Northeast Kingdom its soil and its surface stones and boulders. These terraces have beds of sand and clay from which bricks were once manufactured.
  Two land masses collided at the end of the Ordovician Period about 466 million years ago. This collision first formed what are now the Green Mountains which extend into the westernmost part of the Northeast Kingdom. It also created great pressure within the earth, resulting in active volcanoes. The resultant eruptions produced igneous rock which became the granite found in many of the region's mountains and in the Connecticut River Valley.
  The remaining geology was created during the Silurian–Devonian Period, about 400 million years ago, and left behind slate, with some granite, schist, and limestone.
  An expansion of the polar glaciers resulted in an ice age which greatly affected the geology. A 1-mile-thick (1,600 m) sheet of ice covered the Kingdom several times, over one million years, until 13,500 years ago. It brought the many boulders seen in the area and created many prominent features, including Lake Memphremagog, Lake Willoughby, and Crystal Lake.
  The retreat of the Laurentide glacier allowed the Green Mountains again to arise, but much eroded. A saltwater incursion resulting in the Champlain Sea from the Atlantic Ocean covered much of Vermont, including what is now Lake Memphremagog. This incursion stopped 11,000 years ago and became fresh water. Forests later appeared after the water receded.
caption: Jay Peak seen from Big Jay
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