Emerson Run is a

tributary A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or 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 drain the surrounding drainage ...

Lake Run Lake Run is a tributary of Roaring Brook in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is approximately long and flows through Covington Township. The watershed of the stream has an area of . It has one named tributary, which is ...

Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania Lackawanna County (; unm, Lèkaohane) is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is located in Northeastern Pennsylvania and had a population of 215,896 as of the 2020 census. Its county seat and largest city is Scranton. The county ...

, in the United States. It is approximately long and flows through Covington Township. The watershed of the stream has an area of . Wild trout naturally reproduce in the stream. The surficial geology in its vicinity consists of Wisconsinan Ice-Contact Stratified Drift, Wisconsinan Till, bedrock, wetlands, peat bogs, and sand and gravel pits.

Course

Emerson Run begins in a wetland in a broad and shallow valley in Covington Township. It flows east for several hundred feet before turning north for a similar distance. The stream then turns northwest for a few tenths of a mile before turning east and crossing

Pennsylvania Route 435 Pennsylvania Route 435 (PA 435) is a state highway located in Monroe, Wayne, and Lackawanna counties in Pennsylvania. The southern terminus is at Interstate 380 (I-380) near Gouldsboro. The northern terminus is at I-84 and I- ...

. Several tenths of a mile further downstream, it turns north for a short distance before turning east. After a short distance, it reaches its confluence with Lake Run. Emerson Run joins Lake Run upstream of its mouth.

Geography and geology

The elevation near the

mouth In animal anatomy, the mouth, also known as the oral cavity, or in Latin cavum oris, is the opening through which many animals take in food and issue vocal sounds. It is also the cavity lying at the upper end of the alimentary canal, bounded on ...

of Emerson Run is above

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

. The elevation of 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 o ...

is between above sea level. The path of a planned utility line crosses Emerson Run. The

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

in the vicinity of the lower reaches of Emerson Run consists mainly of Wisconsinan Ice-Contact Stratified Drift. Slightly further from the stream is an area of a

glacial 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 and an area of

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

consisting of conglomeratic sandstone,

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

, and

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4) and tiny fragments (silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especial ...

. There are also a few patches of sand and gravel pits. Along the stream's upper reaches, the surficial geology mainly consists of Wisconsinan Till. However, there are also patches of Wisconsinan Ice-Contact Stratified Drift and pits of sand and gravel. Additionally, there is a patch of

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...

s and

peat bog A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials often mosses, typically sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagmire, and muskeg; a ...

s near this reach of the stream.

Watershed

The

watershed Watershed is a hydrological term, which has been adopted in other fields in a more or less figurative sense. It may refer to: Hydrology * Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins * Drainage basin, called a "watershe ...

of Lake Run has an area of . The stream's mouth is in the

United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, ...

quadrangle of Sterling. However, its source is in the quadrangle of Moscow.

History

Lake Run was entered into the

Geographic Names Information System The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) is a database of name and locative information about more than two million physical and cultural features throughout the United States and its territories, Antarctica, and the associated states of ...

on August 2, 1979. Its identifier in the Geographic Names Information System is 1174218. In the early 2000s, the Lackawanna River Watershed Conservation Plan recommended that Covington Township include protection of Emerson Run in its zoning plans.

Biology

Wild

trout Trout are species of freshwater fish belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', ''Salmo'' and ''Salvelinus'', all of the subfamily Salmoninae of the family Salmonidae. The word ''trout'' is also used as part of the name of some non-salmoni ...

naturally reproduce in a reach of Emerson Run, as far downstream as the stream's mouth. The stream is designated as a High-Quality Coldwater Fishery.

References