Roundtop Hill is a mountain in
Washington County,
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
, southwest of the town of
Hancock Hancock may refer to:
Places in the United States
* Hancock, Iowa
* Hancock, Maine
* Hancock, Maryland
* Hancock, Massachusetts
* Hancock, Michigan
* Hancock, Minnesota
* Hancock, Missouri
* Hancock, New Hampshire
** Hancock (CDP), New Hampshir ...
. The elevation at the summit is .
Geography
Unlike surrounding mountains, Roundtop Hill is not part of an extended ridge system, and is only about in length. It is located just under from the crest of
Tonoloway Ridge, about southwest of Hancock. Its presence causes a large bend in the
Potomac River
The Potomac River () drains the Mid-Atlantic United States, flowing from the Potomac Highlands into Chesapeake Bay. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map. Retrieved Augu ...
, which curves around its eastern slope. Much of the eastern face is part of the
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park and the canal bed and tow path pass along the narrow bank at its base.
Geology
Outstanding outcrops of the
Silurian Wills Creek Formation and underlying
Bloomsburg Formation
The Silurian Bloomsburg Formation is a mapped bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Maryland. It is named for the town of Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania in which it was first described. The Bloomsburg marked the first occurrence of red s ...
are exposed along the old railroad grade at Roundtop Hill. Examples of
folding
Fold, folding or foldable may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''Fold'' (album), the debut release by Australian rock band Epicure
* Fold (poker), in the game of poker, to discard one's hand and forfeit interest in the current pot
*Abov ...
, formation of
cleavage, thrust
faulting
In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic ...
, and the deformation of
bedded rocks are visible. About 500 feet of strata are exposed.
[The Silurian section at Roundtop Hill near Hancock, Maryland, John D. Glaser (Maryland Geological Survey). Geological Society of America Centennial Field Guide—Northeastern Section, 1987]
References
{{Mountains of Maryland
Mountains of Maryland
Landforms of Washington County, Maryland
Allegheny Mountains