Marsh Creek 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 ...

of Rogers Creek in

Luzerne County, Pennsylvania Luzerne County is a county in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and is water. It is Northeastern Pennsylvania's second-largest county by total area. As of ...

, in the United States. It is approximately long and flows through Ross Township. The watershed of the creek has an area of . 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 within the creek. At least one bridge crosses the creek and the community of Broadway and several wetlands are in the watershed. The surficial geology in the creek's vicinity consists of Wisconsinan Till, Wisconsinan Ice-Contact Stratified Drift, alluvium, wetlands, and bedrock.

Course

Marsh Creek begins in 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 ...

in Ross Township. It flows south for a few tenths of a mile before turning west-southwest for nearly a mile. The creek then turns south-southwest for a few miles, receiving two unnamed tributaries from the

right Rights are law, legal, social, or ethics, ethical principles of Liberty, freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convent ...

. It eventually turns south-southwest for a few tenths of a mile, crossing State Route 4019 before reaching its confluence with Rogers Creek. Marsh Creek joins Rogers Creek upstream of its

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 ...

Hydrology

The

bankfull discharge 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 ...

of Marsh Creek upstream of Silo Road is . Downstream of that road, the bankfull discharge is .

Geography and geology

The elevation near the mouth of Marsh Creek 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 creek'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. A 360-foot section of Marsh Creek upstream of Silo Road has a bankfull width of and a bankfull depth of . This gives it a relatively low width to depth ratio of 6.6. The creek's

channel Channel, channels, channeling, etc., may refer to: Geography * Channel (geography), in physical geography, a landform consisting of the outline (banks) of the path of a narrow body of water. Australia * Channel Country, region of outback Austral ...

at this location has a low sinuosity of 1.1 and an entrenchment ratio of 16.0. A 440-foot section of Marsh Creek downstream of Silo Road has a bankfull depth of and a bankfull width of . This gives it a much higher width to depth ratio than the section further upstream: 16.5 to 22.5. Like the upper segment, the channel at this location has a sinuosity of 1.1, but its entrenchment ratio is much lower at 2.0 to 4.3. The

slope In mathematics, the slope or gradient of a line is a number that describes both the ''direction'' and the ''steepness'' of the line. Slope is often denoted by the letter ''m''; there is no clear answer to the question why the letter ''m'' is use ...

of Marsh Creek near Silo Road ranges from 0.0011 to 0.0037. Upstream of Silo Road, the

streambed A stream bed or streambed is the bottom of a stream or river (bathymetry) or the physical confine of the normal water flow (channel). The lateral confines or channel margins are known as the stream banks or river banks, during all but flood st ...

of Marsh Creek mainly consists of fine

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 ...

. Downstream of that road, the streambed consists of coarse

gravel Gravel is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally throughout the world as a result of sedimentary and erosive geologic processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone. Gravel is classifi ...

, with an average particle size of . The surficial geology along the creek in its lower reaches mainly consists of

alluvium Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') 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. Alluv ...

. Further away from the creek, there is a glacial or resedimented

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, as well as a few patches of Wisconsinan Ice-Contact Stratified Drift and

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

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 is Wisconsinan Outwash near the mouth of the creek and two patches 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 ...

near Broadway. The upper reaches of the watershed are mainly dominated by Wisconsinan Till, with bedrock occurring along the edges of the watershed. There are also a few patches of alluvium and three patches of wetland.

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 Marsh Creek has an area of . The area of the portion that is upstream of Silo Road is . The mouth of the creek 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 Shickshinny. However, its source is in the quadrangle of Sweet Valley. A large slope separates the northern part of the watershed from the

main stem In hydrology, a mainstem (or trunk) is "the primary downstream segment of a river, as contrasted to its tributaries". Water enters the mainstem from the river's drainage basin, the land area through which the mainstem and its tributaries flow.. A ...

watershed of Huntington Creek. This hill descends up to from the Marsh Creek watershed to the Huntington Creek watershed. Marsh Creek is approximately north-northwest of the planned Bell Bend Nuclear Power Plant. The creek is also near the small community of Broadway. A road known as Silo Road crosses the creek, separating it into two distinct reaches. A report by Land Studies described Marsh Creek as being one of the most stable stream reaches in its area. It is similar in terms of geology and land use to Walker Run. Marsh Creek is an E5-type stream upstream of Silo Road and a C4-type stream downstream of that road.

History

Marsh Creek 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 1180447. In 1908, a

stone arch An arch bridge is a bridge with abutments at each end shaped as a curved arch. Arch bridges work by transferring the weight of the bridge and its loads partially into a horizontal thrust restrained by the abutments at either side. A viaduct (a ...

bridge over Marsh Creek was proposed. The bridge was to cost $800.00. A prestressed box beam or girders

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

was constructed across Marsh Creek in 1936 and was repaired in 2010. The bridge has a length of . A casing well was once dug through through

glacial drift In geology, drift is a name for all sediment (clay, silt, sand, gravel, boulders) transported by a glacier and deposited directly by or from the ice, or by glacial meltwater. Drift is often subdivided into (unsorted and) unstratified drift (glaci ...

on the west bank of Marsh Creek. A school known as the Broadway School was also historically located near the creek.

Biology

Wild

naturally reproduce in Marsh Creek from its headwaters downstream to its mouth.

References

{{authority control Rivers of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania Tributaries of Fishing Creek (North Branch Susquehanna River) Rivers of Pennsylvania