Soils

The soils on the bedrock in town are the result of erosion of the local bedrock or the result of glacial, lacustrine (lake), recent alluvial (stream), colluvial (slope) and pluvial (swamp) mechanisms forming the soil rind on the bedrock. The majority of the soils in town are the result of the late Wisconsinan glaciation (last glacial age). The soils are either ice contact deposits such as (subglacial) glacial till or eskers, ice terminal deposits such as kames, or glacio-lacustrine deposits, such as deltas, and lake bottom deposits, which are relic to Glacial Lake Contoocook. Glacial Lake Contoocook was a large regional lake that was dammed by glacial ice on the north and topographic highs to the east, south and west. Glacial Lake Contoocook occupied much of the Contoocook Valley below approximate elevation 870 in Antrim.