Editing Morris County, New Jersey (section)

===Geology===
[[File:Image-Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge New Jersey04.jpg|thumb|Barn located in the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge located in [[Harding Township, New Jersey|Harding Township]]]]
Around 500 million years ago, a chain of volcanic islands shaped like an arc collided with proto-North America. The islands rode over top of the North American plate. This created the highlands in western Morris County and the eastern section of Morris County.<ref name=USGS>USGS</ref>

Around 400 million years ago, a small continent long and narrow collided with proto-North America. This created folding and faulting, as compression occurred. Then around 350 million years ago, the [[African Plate]] collided with North America creating the folding and faulting in the Appalachians. But when the African plate pulled away from North America, an aborted rift valley was created. This half [[Wiktionary:graben|graben]], starts east of Boonton and goes through the middle of Parsippany, south to Morristown, to the south end of Great Swamp. From Parsippany and the Boonton area the half graben goes east to the western side of Paterson, where there was another fault by the lava flows. East of the [[Ramapo Fault]] is where there is this aborted rift valley.<ref name=USGS/>

The Ramapo fault goes through the county on a northeast–southwest axis. The fault separates the Highlands from the Piedmont, also known as the Newark Basin. This is an [[active fault]]. The last major earthquake occurred in 1884, with a strength measured at 5.3 on the Richter scale.<ref>[[James Barron (journalist)|Barron, James]]. [https://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/19/nyregion/19quakes.html "A Third Quake Causes Talk, but Little Else"], ''[[The New York Times]]'', February 18, 2009. Accessed October 6, 2013. "The earthquake on Feb. 2 and the aftershock on Wednesday were just south of the area he said had been rattled by a strong-for-New-Jersey tremor in 1783. In geologic time, that is almost recent. 'Probably a 5,' he said, explaining how seismologists had sifted through newspaper accounts to estimate the strength of that quake and another in 1884. 'A lot of articles about that one,' he said. 'That was a 5.3.'"</ref>

Around 21,000 BCE., the [[Wisconsinan glaciation|Wisconsin Glacier]] covered about half of Morris County. The terminal moraine went from Hackettstown east to north of Budd Lake, east to Rockaway and Denville, then southeast to Morristown then south to the south end of Great Swamp. When the glacier melted around 13,000 B.C. the melt water created [[Glacial Lake Passaic]]. The lake extended from what is now [[Pompton Lakes, New Jersey|Pompton Lakes]] through Parsippany south to the south end of Great Swamp. From Parsippany the lake went east to the lava flows of western Paterson. This lake was {{convert|30|mi}} long and {{convert|10|mi}} miles wide and the depth was about {{convert|200|ft}}. When the Wisconsin glacier covered Morris County, the ice sheet was about {{convert|300|m}} deep. Due to debris from the glacier, the lake was unable to drain through the [[Watchung Mountains]] near [[Short Hills, New Jersey|Short Hills]]. Instead, it drained through Moggy Hollow at the southwestern end of the lake. But when the glacier melted and receded to the New York State line, the lake drained though the Little Falls area, as this was lower in elevation than Moggy Hollow. And thus the Passaic River formed.

The swamps of the Great Piece Meadows, Hatfield Swamp, [[Troy Meadows]], Lee Meadows and Great Swamp were all under the Lake Passaic until it drained, and then these areas were created.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20120717080715/http://library.fws.gov/pubs5/web_link/text/pme_form.htm "Significant Habitats and Habitat Complexes of the New York Bight Watershed Passaic Meadows Complex #24"], [[United States Fish and Wildlife Service]]. Accessed October 6, 2013.</ref>