Sharp Mountain or Sharp Ridge (historically also spelled Sharpe) in eastern central

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

is a ridgeline (fold) of the

Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians The Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians, also called the Ridge and Valley Province or the Valley and Ridge Appalachians, are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Highlands division. The physiographic province is divided into three se ...

cut through on its east-side in the Tamaqua gap by the

Little Schuylkill River The Little Schuylkill River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 1, 2011 tributary of the Schuylkill River in Northeastern Pennsylvania. It rises south of McAdoo H ...

which sunders it from the eastern extension of the ridgeline, the

Nesquehoning Ridge Nesquehoning MountainUSGS Geographic Names Information System
s ...

. The ridgeline, located in the heart of Pennsylvania's

anthracite Anthracite, also known as hard coal and black coal, is a hard, compact variety of coal that has a lustre (mineralogy)#Submetallic lustre, submetallic lustre. It has the highest carbon content, the fewest impurities, and the highest energy densit ...

Coal Region The Coal Region is a region of Northeastern Pennsylvania. It is known for being home to the largest known deposits of anthracite, anthracite coal in the world with an estimated reserve of seven billion short tons. The region is typically defined ...

, drains to the

Schuylkill River The Schuylkill River ( , ) is a river in eastern Pennsylvania. It flows for U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map(). accessed April 1, 2011. from Pottsville, Pennsylvania, Pottsville ...

along its western slopes and into the

tributary of the Schuylkill River on its east. The heavily forested, relatively steep slopes of the Sharp and Nesquehoning Mountains characterize the

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes th ...

s within Pennsylvania's

Anthracite Upland The Geology of Pennsylvania consists of six distinct physiographic provinces, three of which are subdivided into different sections. Each province has its own economic advantages and geologic hazards and plays an important role in shaping ever ...

. Sharp Mountain is reported as the first locale where the coal of the region was discovered by a man hunting in 1788. When another hunter found and reported anthracite five to six miles to the east of Tamaqua in what ultimately became Summit Hill, the Lehigh Coal Mining Company was formed in 1792 and began exploiting these finds. Large areas in the valley to the northwest have been disturbed by

coal mining Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

-related activities. Much of the runoff from strip mines is retained in abandoned pits and therefore lesser amounts of

surface runoff Surface runoff (also known as overland flow or terrestrial runoff) is the unconfined flow of water over the ground surface, in contrast to ''channel runoff'' (or ''stream flow''). It occurs when excess rainwater, stormwater, meltwater, or other ...

is discharged into the local creeks.

References

Schuylkill River Ridges of Carbon County, Pennsylvania Landforms of Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania Ridges of Pennsylvania {{SchuylkillCountyPA-geo-stub