Indian Creek (also known as Indian Run or Indian Run Creek) is a tributary of

Mauses Creek Mauses Creek is a tributary of Mahoning Creek in Montour County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is approximately long and flows through Liberty Township and Valley Township. Indian Creek is its only named tributary. The watershed of Maus ...

Montour County, Pennsylvania Montour County is a County (United States), county in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is located in Northeastern Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 18,136. Its count ...

, in the United States. It is approximately and flows through Derry and Valley Townships. The creek's watershed has an area of . No stream in the watershed of Indian Creek is considered by the

Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is the agency in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania responsible for protecting and preserving the land, air, water, and public health through enforcement of the state's environmental laws. ...

to be impaired. Indian Creek has an elevation of 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 ...

near its mouth. There are 82 "disturbances" on the creek. Interstate 80 crosses the creek.

Course

Indian Creek begins in a valley near the southern edge of Derry Township. It flows south for a few hundred feet before entering Valley Township. A few hundred feet further downstream, the creek turns southwest and flows in this direction for several tens of a mile. It then turns south-southwest for some distance, passing through a

pond A pond is an area filled with water, either natural or artificial, that is smaller than a lake. Defining them to be less than in area, less than deep, and with less than 30% emergent vegetation helps in distinguishing their ecology from th ...

, before turning south and eventually crossing

Interstate 80 Interstate 80 (I-80) is an east–west transcontinental freeway that crosses the United States from downtown San Francisco, California, to Teaneck, New Jersey, in the New York metropolitan area. The highway was designated in 1956 as one o ...

and

Pennsylvania Route 54 Pennsylvania Route 54 (PA 54) is a state highway which runs for in eastern Pennsylvania. It runs from U.S. Route 15 (US 15), which is three miles (5 km) west of Montgomery, Lycoming County, in the west, to US 209 in Nesquehoning, ...

. Shortly after crossing these highways, the creek reaches its confluence with Mauses Creek. Indian Creek reaches its confluence with Mauses Creek upstream of its mouth.

Hydrology

No part of Indian Creek or any of its tributaries are considered by the

to be impaired. The

runoff curve number The runoff curve number (also called a curve number or simply CN) is an empirical parameter used in hydrology for predicting direct runoff or infiltration from rainfall excess. The curve number method was developed by the USDA Natural Resources Con ...

at Indian Creek was 60.3 in 2010. By 2020, it is predicted to be 61.3. The

stormwater Stormwater, also spelled storm water, is water that originates from precipitation (storm), including heavy rain and meltwater from hail and snow. Stormwater can soak into the soil ( infiltrate) and become groundwater, be stored on depressed la ...

lag time of the creek was 66.9 minutes in 2010 and is predicted to be 65.3 minutes in 2020.

Geography and geology

Indian Creek has an elevation of above

near its mouth. The headwaters of the creek are between and . There are 82 features on Indian Creek that are considered to be "disturbances". 24 of these are

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is distin ...

sites (13 of which are on the creek's

left bank In geography, a bank is the land alongside a body of water. Different structures are referred to as ''banks'' in different fields of geography, as follows. In limnology (the study of inland waters), a stream bank or river bank is the terrai ...

and 11 of which are on the creek's

right bank In geography, a bank is the land alongside a body of water. Different structures are referred to as ''banks'' in different fields of geography, as follows. In limnology (the study of inland waters), a stream bank or river bank is the terrai ...

), 10 of which are deposition bars, and 9 of which are bridges. Six of the "disturbances" are pipes, six are

riprap Riprap (in North American English), also known as rip rap, rip-rap, shot rock, rock armour (in British English) or rubble, is human-placed rock or other material used to protect shoreline structures against scour and water, wave, or ice erosion. ...

, two are tributaries, one is a

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...

wall, and one is a

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million y ...

crossing. 17 of the erosion sites on Indian Creek have

streambank In geography, a bank is the land alongside a body of water. Different structures are referred to as ''banks'' in different fields of geography, as follows. In limnology (the study of inland waters), a stream bank or river bank is the terrai ...

heights of less than , 5 have streambank heights of , and 2 have streambank heights of more than . Three of the erosion sites on the creek have bank angles of less than 45 degrees, thirteen have bank angles between 45 and 90 degrees, and eight have bank angles over 90 degrees. Two banks on the creek are made 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 ...

boulder In geology, a boulder (or rarely bowlder) is a rock fragment with size greater than in diameter. Smaller pieces are called cobbles and pebbles. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive. In c ...

s, 12 are made of smaller rocks, and 10 are made of

sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class of s ...

and

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

. Eight erosion sites on Indian Creek are less than long. Of these, five have bank heights less than high, two have bank heights of high, and one has a bank height of more than . Five erosion sites on the creek are between and long. Of these, four have bank heights less than high, one has a bank height of high, and two have bank heights of more than . 11 erosion sites on the creek are over long. Of these, 8 have bank heights less than high, 2 have bank heights of high, and 1 has a bank height of more than .

Watershed and history

The watershed of Indian Creek has an area of . The creek's watershed has of streams. Indian Creek is one of the main causes of

flooding A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrolog ...

in Valley Township. A pair of bridges carrying Interstate 80 were built over Indian Creek in 1963. They are both long. A road runs alongside the creek for at least part of its length. Township Road 371 also crosses the creek. It once underwent a replacement at a cost of $1,120,000.

Biology

Three of the banks on Indian Creek are more than 60 percent covered in vegetation. 11 of the banks are between 30 and 60 percent covered in vegetation and 10 banks are less than 30 percent covered. There are

riparian buffer A riparian buffer or stream buffer is a vegetated area (a "buffer strip") near a stream, usually forested, which helps shade and partially protect the stream from the impact of adjacent land uses. It plays a key role in increasing water quality i ...

s along the creek. The Montour County Natural Areas Inventory describes Indian Creek as "of ecological value".

References