page_title: Geology of New Hampshire
section_title: Geography
hierarchical_section_title: Geology of New Hampshire / Geography
caption_attribution_description: English: Shaded relief map of the US state of New Hampshire. By the United States Geological Survey.
context_page_description: The geology of New Hampshire is relatively similar to the rest of the New England region in consisting of a series of metamorphosed sedimentary and volcanic rocks of Late Proterozoic to Devonian age intruded by numerous plutons and dikes ranging in age from Late Proterozoic to early Cretaceous. New Hampshire is known as ‘the Granite State’ though less than half is actually underlain by granite; much of it is schist or gneiss, both of which are metamorphic rocks.
context_section_description: The state is bounded by Quebec, Canada, to the north and northwest; Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east; Massachusetts to the south; and Vermont to the west. New Hampshire's major regions are the Great North Woods, the White Mountains, the Lakes Region, the Seacoast, the Merrimack Valley, the Monadnock Region, and the Dartmouth-Lake Sunapee area. New Hampshire has the shortest ocean coastline of any U.S. coastal state, with a length of 18 miles (29 km), sometimes measured as only 13 miles (21 km). New Hampshire was home to the rock formation called the Old Man of the Mountain, a face-like profile in Franconia Notch, until the formation disintegrated in May 2003.
  The White Mountains range in New Hampshire spans the north-central portion of the state, with Mount Washington the tallest in the northeastern U.S. 
  In the flatter southwest corner of New Hampshire, the landmark Mount Monadnock has given its name to a class of earth-forms – a monadnock – signifying, in geomorphology, any isolated resistant peak rising from a less resistant eroded plain.
  Major rivers include the 110-mile (177 km) Merrimack River, which bisects the lower half of the state north-south and ends up in Newburyport, Massachusetts. Its tributaries include the Contoocook River, Pemigewasset River, and Winnipesaukee River. The 410-mile (660 km) Connecticut River, which starts at New Hampshire's Connecticut Lakes and flows south to Connecticut, defines the western border with Vermont. The state border is not in the center of that river, as usually the case, but at the low-water mark on the Vermont side; meaning that the entire river along the Vermont border (save for areas where the water level has been raised by a dam) lies within New Hampshire. Only one town – Pittsburg – shares a land border with the state of Vermont. The "northwesternmost headwaters" of the Connecticut, now known as Halls Stream, define Canada's border with New Hampshire.
  The Piscataqua River and its several tributaries form the state's only significant ocean port where they flow into the Atlantic at Portsmouth. The Salmon Falls River and the Piscataqua define the southern portion of the border with Maine. The largest of New Hampshire's lakes is Lake Winnipesaukee, which covers 71 square miles (184 km²) in the east-central part of New Hampshire. Umbagog Lake along the Maine border, approximately 12.3 square miles (31.9 km²), is a distant second. Squam Lake is the second largest lake entirely in New Hampshire.
  New Hampshire has the shortest ocean coastline of any state in the United States, approximately 18 miles (29 km) long. About 7 miles (11 km) offshore are the Isles of Shoals, nine small islands (four of which are in New Hampshire).
caption: Shaded relief map of New Hampshire
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)"}