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Boston Basin

Ecoregion in MA

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An inner Boston Basin occurs at a geologic and topographic break that encloses an area composed of the Cambridge argillite and Roxbury conglomerate rock units. Low hills, such as the Blue Hills in the south and the escarpment from Waltham to Lynn in the north, mark this basin’s rim. The larger Boston Basin ecoregion delineated here also includes the hilly urbanized ring and some outlying lowlands occurring on different metamorphic and volcanic rock types. The area is drained primarily by the Neponset, Charles, Mystic and Saugus rivers, and there are many urban ponds, lakes, and reservoirs. The basin is not a level plain but has low rolling topography, with stratified drift surrounding drumlins and till-covered bedrock hills. The few areas of flat ground such as the glacial clay areas on the outskirts of Cambridge, Belmont, and Arlington were once intensively cultivated vegetable fields and greenhouses, but now almost the entire region is urban and suburban land. Estuaries, bays, and islands occur along the eastern edge.

— EPA

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