The seacoast of Maine was once part of a mini-continent called Avalonia that rifted off of Gondwana and traveled across the Iapetus Ocean, which formed between North America's Laurentia and central Europe (in Greek mythology Iapetus was the father of Atlas), eons before the Atlantic Ocean formed. When the Iapetus Ocean closed up, Europe and North America came together and made a sandwich with the small terrane (traveling section of Earth's crust) of Avalonia in between them forming the deli-slice filling of the sandwich in the Devonian era. Later, when the Atlantic Ocean opened up, one side of Avalonia stuck to North America while the other side stuck to Europe.
Anyway, the Norumbega Fault between (what remains of) Avalonia, the side that stuck to North America, and the original Laurentian North America runs through Maine just inland of the coast. Look at the topography along route 95 in Penobscot County. Between ranges of low hills appears something like a gash in the land that is deepest in the Penobscot valley at its confluence with the Kenduskeag.
In other words, Bangor/Derry really is situated at the bottom of a hollow like a geological wound where the split between the rocks continues below the surface. Stephen King read the lay of the land right there for inspiration. The real geology of Maine totally matches up with it... with It.
Anyway, the Norumbega Fault between (what remains of) Avalonia, the side that stuck to North America, and the original Laurentian North America runs through Maine just inland of the coast. Look at the topography along route 95 in Penobscot County. Between ranges of low hills appears something like a gash in the land that is deepest in the Penobscot valley at its confluence with the Kenduskeag.
In other words, Bangor/Derry really is situated at the bottom of a hollow like a geological wound where the split between the rocks continues below the surface. Stephen King read the lay of the land right there for inspiration. The real geology of Maine totally matches up with it... with It.