Richmond Pond fills a depression scraped from the limestone-and-marble bedrock by advancing glaciers thousands of years ago.  It lies at about 1,100 feet elevation in a narrow valley just east of the Taconic Mountains that rise to about 1,700 feet near the pond.  To the west, the elevated ridge of Lenox Mountain climbs to an elevation of about 2,000 feet.  The western half of the lake is shallow, with an average depth of less than ten feet.