The Ben Lomond Area covers approximately 50 sq mi and straddles the boundary between the Caledonia Highlands and a coastal lowland in southern New Brunswick.

Field evidence indicates that this area was glaciated during the Pleistocene Epoch. Evidence of only one glaciation was found. The minor modification of glacial deposits by postglacial weathering and erosion as well as radiocarbon dated features outside the area indicate that this glaciation occurred during the last or Wisconsin Glacial Stage.

Ice advanced across the area from the north and northeast. Glacial erosion produced striations, crescentic gouges, stoss-and-lee bedrock knobs and removed minor topographic irregularities.

Nearly all the surficial deposits are of glacial origin. A discontinuous mantle of till deposited by the ice covers the largest portion of the area. Stratified drift, deposited during deglaciation, is found in most valleys and along hillsides.

Much of the stratified drift is grouped into four sequences composed of two or more morphologically different deposits. The Little River Sequence in the southwest part of the map area contains the oldest deposits of stratified drift. The Mispec River Sequence in the southeast is believed to be partly contemporaneous with the Little River Sequence. The McCormac Lake Sequence in the central part of the area is younger than the Little River Sequence while the youngest deposits of stratified drift comprise the Bradley Lake - Carpenter Pond Sequence in the northern portion of the Ben Lomond Area.

Several of the ice-contact stratified drift deposits accumulated against either ice masses that were stagnant or ice tongues that were stagnant at least along the zone periphal to the ice margin.

Deltaic sediments forming part of the Little River Sequence were deposited in close proximity to a confluent ice margin. These deltaic sediments may be correlative with a discontinuous recessional moraine in adjacent portions of southeastern New Brunswick and northeastern Maine.

Fossiliferous marine sediments in the Ben Lomond Area are included in the Little River Sequence. These marine sediments are believed to be bottomset beds deposited contemporaneously with adjacent deltaic foreset beds and if so indicate that the Wisconsin marine limit in this portion of New Brunswick was 210 to 225 ft above present sea level at the time of deglaciation. The marine sediments, however, may be postglacial giving a minimum value for the marine limit of only 40 ft above present sea level.

Permafrost features observed in the stratified drift deposits include involutions and ice-wedge pseudomorphs and indicate a cold period during which the mean annual air temperature was at least -6°C. This cold period may have occurred during or after deglaciation.

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