The Ossipee Mountains stand as a remarkedly circular range of mountains and hills just south of the Sandwich Range in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. The highest peaks rise nearly 2,500 ft above the waters of nearby Lake Winnipesaukee. This unique landscape was ultimately created by the cataclysmic collapse of a volcano approximately 120 million years ago. In this talk we will examine the geologic evidence for this remarkable event that can still be discerned despite millions of years of erosion that has removed many thousands of feet of rock. Every landscape has a story to tell and in this talk you will learn how to read the incredible story of the Ossipee Mountains.

About the speaker

Robert M. Newton, Professor Emeritus of Geosciences for Smith College, Northampton, MA holds a B.A. from the University of New Hampshire, M.A. from Binghamton University, and a Ph.D. from University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He served as Professor of Geosciences at Smith College for over 40 years. He has taught courses in physical geology, geomorphology, groundwater geology, glacial geology and climate change. He mapped the glacial geology of the Ossipee Lake Quadrangle for the State of New Hampshire in 1974. He has spent summers at Silver Lake in Madison since 1956.