Mount Moosilauke

Mount Moosilauke is a 4,802-foot-high (1,464 m) mountain at the southwestern end of the White Mountains in the town of Benton, New Hampshire, United States. It is the tenth highest and most southwesterly of the 4,000 foot summits in the White Mountains.

Moosilauke is ranked 9th on the New England Fifty Finest peaks, a list of summits with the highest topographic prominence. The Appalachian Trail passes over the mountain. It is sometimes referred to as the "Gentle Giant".

Its name is thought to be derived from a contraction of the Native American words moosi ("bald"), and auke ("place").

Geology

Mount Moosilauke is made up of metamorphic rock called the Littleton Formation which is Lower Devonian in age. The Littleton Formation is primarily a mica schist with zones containing garnet and staurolite-sillimanite. The unit also contains interbedded amphibolites. The mica schist started out as clay-rich mud in a marine basin that probably formed during the early Acadian Orogeny. The amphibolites may represent metamorphosed submarine basalt flows.