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Brush Mountain | |
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Highest point | |
Elevation | 2,557 ft (779 m) |
Coordinates | 40°29′15.68″N78°21′7.79″W / 40.4876889°N 78.3521639°W |
Geography | |
Location | Blair County, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
Parent range | Appalachian Mountains |
Topo map | USGS Millheim (PA) Quadrangle |
Climbing | |
First ascent | unknown |
Brush Mountain is a stratigraphic ridge in the Appalachian Mountains of central Pennsylvania, United States, lying east of the Allegheny Front and west of Tussey Mountain. It runs along the southeast side of the Little Juniata River and forms a horseshoe around Sinking Run, and is the westernmost ridge in its section of the Ridge-and-valley Appalachians. The western ridge line separates the Logan Valley from the Sinking Valley.
Brush Mountain lies entirely in Blair County. It runs from the water gap formed with Bald Eagle Mountain by the Little Juniata River at Tyrone, south to the Sinking Valley anticline fold near Altoona then turns northeast to the Canoe Valley syncline fold, where the ridge becomes Canoe Mountain. The total length of Brush Mountain is approximately 30 miles (48 km).
No major roads or rivers cross the ridge or run through gaps. Kettle Reservoir collects surface runoff from a small area in the fold, and the dam was made by filling in a small ravine. Kettle Road, a secondary road, runs through the ravine near the dam east into Sinking Valley. A major power transmission line crosses the ridge twice, midway between the folds.
The Brush Mountain Ridge is popular with soaring birds and glider pilots ridge soaring along its slopes. This ridge is part of a chain of ridges that stretch south to Tennessee. The fold at the south end of Brush Mountain forms a gap in the chain, with the continuation of the ridge line 6 miles (10 km) south on Dunning Mountain.
Pennsylvania State Game Lands Number 166 lies on Brush Mountain south of Sinking Hollow and on Canoe Mountain and in the valley between. [1]
Shortly after 11:00 a.m. EST on July 19, 1996, an F1 tornado touched down northeast of Altoona approximately 1 mile northwest of Sickles Corner on Brush Mountain. This tornado moved southeast, taking down a swath of trees along the mountain and causing minor damage to homes along a 1.5-mile (2.4 km) path before ending one half mile southeast of Sickles Corner. The path width averaged about one half mile wide. This storm was the fourth in the family of tornadoes that had crossed Clarion, Jefferson, Indiana, Clearfield and Cambria counties. [2]
Brush Mountain is in the northern portion of the Ridge and Valley province of the vast Appalachian Mountains range. Bald Eagle Mountain and neighboring Tussey Mountain are made up of Paleozoic rocks, consisting of the Ordovician Bald Eagle Formation (sandstone), the Juniata Formation (shale and siltstone), and the Silurian Tuscarora Formation (quartzite) that were folded during the Alleghanian orogeny in the Permian period, then eroded down to their present form. [3]
The Tuscarora Quartzite is more resistant to erosion than the Bald Eagle Sandstone, and both are more resistant than the Juniata formation between them or the other formations stratigraphically above and below them. The two sandstones thus form a double ridge line, with the harder Tuscarora at the crest.
On the north end of the mountain, the rock layers are tipped near vertical, and the mountain has the same double-crested ridge shape as the Bald Eagle ridge extending to the north, with the crests near the center of the harder rock layers. A little further south, there are several fault lines running across the ridge, and the rock layers then slope down to the west. This leaves the Tuscarora formation more parallel to the steeper western slope, with the crest marking the dividing line between the layers. The tougher rock also protected the slope from erosion, leaving a higher southern ridge line.
The tilted aspect of the rock layers leaves the Juniata formation more perpendicular to the upper portion of the shallower opposite slope, below the steep crest. The Bald Eagle formation below holds back the eroding rock, creating a shelf above a steeper lower slope running down to Sinking Valley. The drainage in the shelf area cut a series of small ravines, leaving terraces between them. The terraces wrap around the inside of the anticline fold around Sinking Valley, and then around the outside of the reverse fold on Canoe Mountain.
Colerain Township is a township in Bedford County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 1,195 at the 2010 census.
Snake Spring Township is a township in Bedford County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 1,639 at the 2010 census.
The Cumberland Mountains are a mountain range in the southeastern section of the Appalachian Mountains. They are located in western Virginia, southwestern West Virginia, the eastern edges of Kentucky, and eastern middle Tennessee, including the Crab Orchard Mountains. Their highest peak, with an elevation of 4,223 feet (1,287 m) above mean sea level, is High Knob, which is located near Norton, Virginia.
In structural geology, an anticline is a type of fold that is an arch-like shape and has its oldest beds at its core, whereas a syncline is the inverse of a anticline. A typical anticline is convex up in which the hinge or crest is the location where the curvature is greatest, and the limbs are the sides of the fold that dip away from the hinge. Anticlines can be recognized and differentiated from antiforms by a sequence of rock layers that become progressively older toward the center of the fold. Therefore, if age relationships between various rock strata are unknown, the term antiform should be used.
Mount Nittany is the common name for Nittany Mountain, a prominent geographic feature in Centre County, Pennsylvania, USA. The mountain is part of a ridge that separates Nittany Valley from Penns Valley, with the enclosed Sugar Valley between them. On USGS topographic maps, Nittany Mountain is generally shown as the lower ridge line that runs below Big Mountain on the west and Big Kettle Mountain on the east side, coming together to form a single ridge line at the southern terminus. This nomenclature is not always consistently applied to the same geologic formation, and there is a shorter Nittany Mountain ridge shown above the Sugar Valley as well.
Rothrock State Forest is a Pennsylvania state forest in Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry District #5. The main offices are located in Huntingdon in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania in the United States.
The Bald Eagle Valley of central Pennsylvania, United States, is the low-lying area draining into Bald Eagle Creek between the Allegheny Front and Bald Eagle Mountain, south of the West Branch Susquehanna River, in the Ridge-and-valley Appalachians. It is southwest of the West Branch Susquehanna Valley that includes Williamsport and northwest of the Nittany Valley that includes State College.
Bald Eagle Mountain – once known locally as Muncy Mountain – is a stratigraphic ridge in the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians of central Pennsylvania, United States, running east of the Allegheny Front and northwest of Mount Nittany. It lies along the southeast side of Bald Eagle Creek and south of the West Branch Susquehanna River, and is the westernmost ridge in its section of the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians. The ridge line separates the West Branch Susquehanna Valley from the Nippenose and White Deer Hole valleys, and Bald Eagle Valley from Nittany Valley.
The Nittany Valley is an eroded anticlinal valley in the central portion of Centre County, Pennsylvania in the United States. It is separated from the Bald Eagle Valley by Bald Eagle Mountain and from Penns Valley by Mount Nittany. The valley is closed to the north by a high plateau that joins these two mountain ridges, but is open to the south at the southern terminus of Mount Nittany. The valley drains to the Bald Eagle Creek through water gaps in Bald Eagle Mountain formed by Spring Creek, and Fishing Creek, along with smaller streams running through Curtain Gap and Howard Gap. The Northwest side of the valley between the Bald Eagle Mountain ridge and the lower Sand Ridge is also known as the "Little Nittany Valley".
The Nittany Arch or Nittany anticline is an anticline geologic formation in the western part of the Ridge-and-Valley physiographic province of the Appalachian Mountains of Central Pennsylvania, United States. The Nitany Arch is more than 100 miles long, stretching from Muncy to Hollidaysburg, with a maximum width of approximately 9 miles.
Wills Mountain is a quartzite-capped ridge in the Ridge and Valley physiographic province of the Appalachian Mountains in Pennsylvania and Maryland, United States, extending from near Bedford, Pennsylvania, to near Cumberland, Maryland. It is the northernmost of several mountain ridges included within the Wills Mountain Anticline.
Tussey Mountain is a stratigraphic ridge in central Pennsylvania, United States, trending east of the Bald Eagle, Brush, Dunning and Evitts Mountain ridges. Its southern foot just crosses the Mason–Dixon line near Flintstone, Maryland, running north 130 km (80 mi) to the Seven Mountains of central Pennsylvania, near Tusseyville, making it one of the longest named ridges in this section of the Ridge-and-valley Appalachians. The ridge line separates Morrison Cove from the Woodcock Valley and Friends Cove from the Black Valley. Tussey Mountain lies in, and the ridge line forms parts of the borders of, Centre, Blair, Bedford and Huntingdon counties.
The Silurian Tuscarora Formation — also known as Tuscarora Sandstone or Tuscarora Quartzite — is a mapped bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia, USA.
The Ordovician Juniata Formation is a mapped bedrock unit in Pennsylvania and Maryland. It is a relative slope-former occurring between the two prominent ridge-forming sandstone units: the Tuscarora Formation and the Bald Eagle Formation in the Appalachian Mountains.
Bedford County, Pennsylvania is situated along the western border of the Ridge and Valley physiographic province, which is characterized by folded and faulted sedimentary rocks of early to middle Paleozoic age. The northwestern border of the county is approximately at the Allegheny Front, a geological boundary between the Ridge and Valley Province and the Allegheny Plateau.
For other "River Knobs", see River Knobs (disambiguation).
Jacks Mountain is a stratigraphic ridge in central Pennsylvania, United States, trending southeast of the Stone Mountain ridge and Jacks Mountain Anticline. The ridge line separates Kishacoquillas Valley from the Ferguson and Dry Valleys. Jacks Mountain lies in Mifflin, Huntingdon, Snyder, and Union Counties, and the ridge line forms part of the border between Huntingdon and Mifflin Counties.
Stone Mountain is a stratigraphic ridge in central Pennsylvania, United States, trending northwest of the Jacks Mountain ridge and Jacks Mountain Anticline. The ridge line separates Kishacoquillas Valley from the Seven Mountains area. Stone Mountain lies in, and the ridge line forms part of the border between, Mifflin and Huntingdon counties.
Canoe Mountain is a stratigraphic ridge in central Pennsylvania, United States, running east of the Allegheny Front and west of Tussey Mountain. It forms a continuous ridge with Brush Mountain to the west. To the south, across the water gap formed by the Frankstown Branch Juniata River, the ridgeline continues as Lock Mountain.
Dunning Mountain is a stratigraphic ridge in central Pennsylvania, United States. The mountain's north end is at McKee Gap, which separates it from Short Mountain, and where Halter Creek flows westward towards the Frankstown Branch of the Juniata River. The south end of the mountain is contiguous with Evitts Mountain, but is marked by a sharp bend to the east. The valley formed by the bend is known as "The Kettle," and the broad valley to the east of Dunning Mountain is called Morrisons Cove. The town of Roaring Spring is located at the north end of the mountain on the east side.
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