Tower Branch is a

tributary A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream (''main stem'' or ''"parent"''), river, or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries, and the main stem river into which they ...

of Tunkhannock Creek in

Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania Susquehanna County is a County (United States), county in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 38,434 Its county seat is Montrose, Pennsylvania, Montro ...

, in the United States. It is approximately long and flows through Harford Township and Lenox Township. The watershed of the stream has an area of . The stream is not designated as an impaired waterbody and has no named tributaries. The surficial geology in its vicinity consists mainly of Wisconsinan Till, alluvium, with some lakes, wetlands, bedrock, and alluvial fan. The stream's drainage basin is classified as a Coldwater Fishery and a Migratory Fishery.

Course

Tower Branch begins in a

wetland A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

in Harford Township. It flows south-southeast for a few tenths of a mile, passing through a small unnamed pond and entering another wetland. The stream then turns south, entering Lenox Township and passing through another pond and another wetland. It then flows south-southwest for several tenths of a mile before turning south-southeast for several tenths of a mile. In this reach, it receives an unnamed tributary from the

right Rights are law, legal, social, or ethics, ethical principles of freedom or Entitlement (fair division), entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal sy ...

. The stream eventually turns southeast for several tenths of a mile before abruptly turning south-southwest for more than a mile, receiving an unnamed tributary from the right. It then turns south for several tenths of a mile before turning southeast and crossing Pennsylvania Route 92. A short distance further downstream, it reaches its confluence with Tunkhannock Creek. Tower Branch is approximately long. It joins Tunkhannock Creek upstream of its mouth.

Hydrology, geography and geology

The elevation near the

mouth A mouth also referred to as the oral is the body orifice through which many animals ingest food and animal communication#Auditory, vocalize. The body cavity immediately behind the mouth opening, known as the oral cavity (or in Latin), is also t ...

of Tower Branch is above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

. The elevation near the stream's

source Source may refer to: Research * Historical document * Historical source * Source (intelligence) or sub source, typically a confidential provider of non open-source intelligence * Source (journalism), a person, publication, publishing institute ...

is above sea level. The

surficial geology Superficial deposits (or surficial deposits) refer to geological deposits typically of Quaternary age (less than 2.6 million years old) for the Earth. These geologically recent unconsolidated sediments may include stream channel and floodplain dep ...

near the mouth of Tower Branch mainly consists of

alluvial fan An alluvial fan is an accumulation of sediments that fans outwards from a concentrated source of sediments, such as a narrow canyon emerging from an escarpment. They are characteristic of mountainous terrain in arid to Semi-arid climate, semiar ...

. Most of the area in stream's vicinity has its surficial geology dominated by a

till image:Geschiebemergel.JPG, Closeup of glacial till. Note that the larger grains (pebbles and gravel) in the till are completely surrounded by the matrix of finer material (silt and sand), and this characteristic, known as ''matrix support'', is d ...

known as

Wisconsinan Till The Wisconsin glaciation, also called the Wisconsin glacial episode, was the most recent glacial period of the North American ice sheet complex, peaking more than 20,000 years ago. This advance included the Cordilleran Ice Sheet, which nucleate ...

, but there are patches of

alluvium Alluvium (, ) is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluvium is also sometimes called alluvial deposit. Alluvium is ...

and smaller patches of lakes and wetlands.

Bedrock In geology, bedrock is solid rock that lies under loose material ( regolith) within the crust of Earth or another terrestrial planet. Definition Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies looser surface material. An exposed portion of bed ...

consisting of

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

and

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of Clay mineral, clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g., Kaolinite, kaolin, aluminium, Al2Silicon, Si2Oxygen, O5(hydroxide, OH)4) and tiny f ...

occurs in the surficial geology on parts of some hills near the stream. Tower Branch is not designated as an impaired waterbody.

Watershed

The

watershed Watershed may refer to: Hydrology * Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins * Drainage basin, an area of land where surface water converges (North American usage) Music * Watershed Music Festival, an annual country ...

of Tower Branch has an area of . The stream is entirely within the

United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The agency was founded on Mar ...

quadrangle of Lenoxville. Its mouth is located near Glenwood. Williams Field Services Company, LLC has received a permit to build, maintain, and operate a

natural gas Natural gas (also fossil gas, methane gas, and gas) is a naturally occurring compound of gaseous hydrocarbons, primarily methane (95%), small amounts of higher alkanes, and traces of carbon dioxide and nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide and helium ...

pipeline passing through the watershed of Tower Branch and crossing one or more of its unnamed tributaries.

History

Tower Branch was entered into the

Geographic Names Information System The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) is a database of name and location information about more than two million physical and cultural features, encompassing the United States and its territories; the Compact of Free Association, asso ...

on August 2, 1979. Its identifier in the Geographic Names Information System is 1189677. A concrete

tee beam A T-beam (or tee beam), used in construction, is a load-bearing structure of reinforced concrete, wood or metal, with a capital 'T'-shaped cross section. The top of the T-shaped cross section serves as a flange or compression member in resisti ...

bridge carrying Pennsylvania Route 92 over Tower Branch was constructed in Lenox Township in 1957 and is long.

Biology

The drainage basin of Tower Branch is classified as a Coldwater Fishery and a Migratory Fishery. Wild

trout Trout (: trout) is a generic common name for numerous species of carnivorous freshwater ray-finned fishes belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', ''Salmo'' and ''Salvelinus'', all of which are members of the subfamily Salmoninae in the ...

naturally reproduce in Tower Branch from its upper reaches downstream to its mouth, a distance of . The designated use for the stream is

aquatic life An aquatic ecosystem is an ecosystem found in and around a body of water, in contrast to land-based terrestrial ecosystems. Aquatic ecosystems contain communities of organisms—aquatic life—that are dependent on each other and on their environm ...

. The Cecil/Wagner Property, part of the North Branch Land Trust is located in the watersheds of Tower Branch and Tunkhannock Creek, in Lenox Township. The property has an area of and includes agricultural fields,

coniferous forest Conifers () are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All e ...

deciduous forest In the fields of horticulture and botany, the term deciduous () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, after flo ...

meadow A meadow ( ) is an open habitat or field, vegetated by grasses, herbs, and other non- woody plants. Trees or shrubs may sparsely populate meadows, as long as they maintain an open character. Meadows can occur naturally under favourable con ...

s, a pond, a stream, and

s. It contains an "astonishing diversity of high-quality flora and fauna species" as well as species that are rare in the area. The property is home to nine Species of Special Concern in Pennsylvania.

References