The topography of the New England Uplands section is that of a maturely-dissected

plateau In geology and physical geography, a plateau (; ; ), also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland consisting of flat terrain that is raised sharply above the surrounding area on at least one side. Often one or more sides ha ...

with narrow valleys, and the entire area is greatly modified by

glaciation A glacial period (alternatively glacial or glaciation) is an interval of time (thousands of years) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances. Interglacials, on the other hand, are periods of warmer climate betw ...

. It is the most widespread of the geomorphic sections in the

New England Province The New England province is a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian division of eastern North America. The province consists of the Seaboard Lowland, New England Upland, White Mountain, Green Mountain, and Taconic sections. Geology ...

, extending from Canada through New England down to the Seaboard section and extending southwestward through New York and New Jersey as two narrow upland projections, the

Reading Prong The Reading Prong is a physiographic subprovince of the New England Uplands section of the New England province of the Appalachian Highlands. The prong consists of mountains made up of crystalline metamorphic rock. Location The Reading Prong st ...

and the

Manhattan Prong The Manhattan Prong of the New England Uplands is a smaller belt of ancient rock in southern New York (including Manhattan, the Bronx, and segments of Brooklyn and Staten Island), parts of Westchester County, and upland portions of southwestern Conn ...

. Numerous hills and mountains rise above the general level of the upland; except in the presence of mountains, the horizon of the regional landscape is fairly level. Glaciation has resulted in the erosion and rounding off of the bedrock topography and numerous rock basin lakes.

Glacial drift In geology, drift is a name for all sediment (clay, silt, sand, gravel, boulders) transported by a glacier and deposited directly by or from the ice, or by glacial meltwater. Drift is often subdivided into (unsorted and) unstratified drift (glaci ...

is thin, patchy, and stony, and ice-contact features such as

kame A kame, or ''knob'', is a glacial landform, an irregularly shaped hill or mound composed of sand, gravel and till that accumulates in a depression on a retreating glacier, and is then deposited on the land surface with further melting of the g ...

s, kame terraces, and

esker An esker, eskar, eschar, or os, sometimes called an ''asar'', ''osar'', or ''serpent kame'', is a long, winding ridge of stratified sand and gravel, examples of which occur in glaciated and formerly glaciated regions of Europe and North Amer ...

s are abundant. The surface of the New England Uplands slopes southeast from maximum inland altitudes around , excluding the other mountainous sections of the province, to about along its seaward edge at the narrow coastal Seaboard section, which goes down to sea level. In the

New York Bight The New York Bight is the geological identification applied to a roughly triangular indentation, regarded as a bight, along the Atlantic coast of the United States that extends northeasterly from Cape May Inlet in New Jersey to Montauk Point on ...

watershed, the New England Uplands section is represented by a portion of the

Taconic Mountains The Taconic Mountains or Taconic Range () are a range of the Appalachian Mountains, running along the eastern border of New York State and adjacent New England from northwest Connecticut to western Massachusetts, north to central western Vermont. ...

and its foothills, and by the Reading and Manhattan Prongs that extend southwestward from the New England states. Although geologists refer to the larger of these extensions as the

, in this region it is more commonly known as the

New York - New Jersey Highlands New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

, and locally as the Hudson Highlands, the New Jersey Highlands, the

Ramapo Mountains The Ramapo Mountains are a forested chain of the Appalachian Mountains in northeastern New Jersey and southeastern New York, in the United States. They range in height from in New Jersey, and in New York. Several parks and forest preserves en ...

, or simply the Highlands. The Highlands are bounded on the southeast and on the northwest by the lowlands of the

Piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

and Great Valley provinces, respectively. The mountains and valleys that make up the Highlands are part of a relatively long, linear, and narrow regional geological feature that averages in width, with a maximum width of , and extends in a southwest–northeast trending direction for nearly , from southeastern Pennsylvania near

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...

to southwestern Connecticut near

Danbury Danbury is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, located approximately northeast of New York City. Danbury's population as of 2022 was 87,642. It is the seventh largest city in Connecticut. Danbury is nicknamed the "Hat City ...

, where it joins the Taconic Mountains and Housatonic Highlands of the New England Uplands plateau. The

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...

cuts a deep gorge through the Highlands in New York in the stretch of river between

Peekskill Peekskill is a city in northwestern Westchester County, New York, United States, from New York City. Established as a village in 1816, it was incorporated as a city in 1940. It lies on a bay along the east side of the Hudson River, across fr ...

on the south and Newburgh on the north.

External links

*{{USFWS, article=Geomorphic Provinces and Sections of the New York Bight Watershed, url=https://nctc.fws.gov/pubs5/web_link/text/geolsect.htm Geology of Connecticut Geology of Maine Geology of Massachusetts Geology of New Hampshire Geology of New Jersey Geology of New York (state) Geology of Pennsylvania Geology of Rhode Island Geology of Vermont Geography of New England Highlands Appalachian Mountains