Metacomet Ridge - Geography

Geography

Beginning at Long Island Sound, the Metacomet Ridge commences as two parallel ridges with related sub-ridges and outcrops in between; the latter include the high butte–like cliffs of East Rock and the isolated peak of Peter's Rock. The western ridgeline of the Metacomet Ridge begins in New Haven, Connecticut, as West Rock Ridge and continues as Sleeping Giant, Mount Sanford, Peck Mountain, and Prospect Ridge, for a distance of 16 miles (26 km) before diminishing into a series of low profile outcrops just short of Southington, Connecticut, 2.75 miles (4.4 km) west of the Hanging Hills in Meriden.

To the east, beginning on the rocky prominence of Beacon Hill, 130 feet (40 m), in Branford, Connecticut, overlooking the East Haven River estuary, the Metacomet Ridge continues as a traprock ridge 60 miles (97 km) north to Mount Tom in Holyoke, Massachusetts; it then breaks east across the Connecticut River to form the Holyoke Range, which continues for 10 miles (16 km) before terminating in Belchertown, Massachusetts. Several scattered parallel ridges flank it; the most prominent of these are the hills of Rocky Hill, Connecticut, and the Barn Door Hills of Granby, Connecticut.

North of Mount Tom and the Holyoke Range, the apparent crest of the Metacomet Ridge is broken by a discontinuity in the once dominant traprock strata. Underlying sedimentary layers remain but lack the same profile. Between the Holyoke Range and the Pocumtuck Ridge, a stretch of 9 miles (14 km), the Metacomet Ridge exists only as a series of mostly nondescript rises set among flat plains of sedimentary bedrock. Mount Warner, 512 feet (156 m), in Hadley, Massachusetts, the only significant peak in the area, is a geologically unrelated metamorphic rock landform that extends west into the sedimentary strata.

The Metacomet Ridge picks up elevation again with the Pocumtuck Ridge, beginning on Sugarloaf Mountain and the parallel massif of Mount Toby, 1,269 feet (387 m), the high point of the Metacomet Ridge geography. Both Sugarloaf Mountain and Mount Toby are composed of erosion-resistant sedimentary rock. North of Mount Sugarloaf, the Pocumtuck Ridge continues as alternating sedimentary and traprock dominated strata to Greenfield, Massachusetts. From Greenfield north to 2 miles (3 km) short of the Vermont–New Hampshire–Massachusetts tri–border, the profile of the Metacomet Ridge diminishes into a series of nondescript hills and low, wooded mountain peaks composed of sedimentary rock with dwindling traprock outcrops.

In Connecticut, the high point of the Metacomet Ridge is West Peak of the Hanging Hills at 1,024 feet (312 m); in Massachusetts, the highest traprock peak is Mount Tom, 1,202 feet (366 m), although Mount Toby, made of sedimentary rock, is higher. Visually, the Metacomet Ridge is narrowest at Provin Mountain and East Mountain in Massachusetts where it is less than 0.5 miles (1 km) wide; it is widest at Totoket Mountain, over 4 miles (6 km). However, low parallel hills and related strata along much of the range often make the actual geologic breadth of the Metacomet Ridge wider than the more noticeable ridgeline crests, up to 10 miles (16 km) across in some areas. Significant river drainages of the Metacomet Ridge include the Connecticut River and tributaries (Falls River, Deerfield River, Westfield River, Farmington River, Coginchaug River); and, in southern Connecticut, the Quinnipiac River.

The Metacomet Ridge is surrounded by rural wooded, agricultural, and suburban landscapes, and is no more than 6 miles (10 km) from a number of urban hubs such as New Haven, Meriden, New Britain, Hartford, and Springfield. Small city centers abutting the ridge include Greenfield, Northampton, Amherst, Holyoke, West Hartford, Farmington, Wallingford, and Hamden.