Tussey Mountain

Coordinates: 40°12′36″N 78°19′56″W / 40.21000°N 78.33222°W / 40.21000; -78.33222
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Tussey Mountain
Tussey Mountain Ridge seen from New Enterprise, Pennsylvania
Highest point
Elevation2,740 ft (840 m)(at Martin Hill)
Coordinates40°12′36″N 78°19′56″W / 40.21000°N 78.33222°W / 40.21000; -78.33222
Geography
LocationPennsylvania, U.S.
Parent rangeAppalachian Mountains
Topo mapUSGS Hopewell (PA) Quadrangle
Geologic cross section along the Little Juniata River

Tussey Mountain is a

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

Loysburg Gap at Loysburg, Pennsylvania. Maple Run Road passes through a wind gap near Pulpit Hill and Coot Hill, heading west to Woodbury. Pennsylvania Route 164 runs east out of Martinsburg
, and climbs the west slope with a switchback before crossing the crest.

The

Tussey Mountain Ski Area in Boalsburg
.

The Tussey Mountain Ridge is popular with

ridge soaring along its slopes. This ridge is part of a chain of ridges that stretch south to Tennessee. Tussey Mountain has been designated a Pennsylvania Important Bird Area (IBA), based primarily on its importance as a spring raptor migration site, but also as a long corridor of intact forest habitat, over 50% of which is publicly owned [1]. It is one of the best sites in the eastern United States for viewing the migration of the golden eagle. Pennsylvania's longest footpath, Mid State Trail
, is atop or closely parallels Tussey Mountain for nearly its entire length.

In Blair County, Tussey Mountain is sometimes called Huntingdon Mountain, as one reaches Huntingdon by crossing it going east. Conversely, in some parts of Huntingdon County it is called Williamsburg Mountain as one reaches Williamsburg by crossing it going west.[citation needed]

Pennsylvania State Game Lands Number 118 is located along Tussey Mountain in Blair and Huntingdon Counties.[1][2]

Geology

An 1885 topographical map of the Water Street Narrows
Tuscarora Formation exposed on Tussey Mountain, where the Raystown Branch of the Juniata River and U.S. Route 30 pass through west of Everett

Tussey Mountain is in the

Appalachian orogeny, these layers folded up with the underlying and overlying layers into the Nittany Arch. The arch was a Himalayan scale mountain that towered above what is now Nittany Valley, where the oldest rock layers from deep within the eroded
mountain are now exposed.

The Tuscarora Quartzite is more resistant to erosion than Bald Eagle Sandstone, and both are more durable than the Juniata Shale sandwiched in-between. Softer rock layers on either side of these eroded, leaving the double crested Tussey Mountain ridge, with a depression between the higher eastern and lower western ridge lines found on the northern section of the ridge. Since the rock layers on these ridges slope down to the east, the Tuscarora Formation underlies the higher crest, where it protected the east slope from erosion. Drainage from the upper slope has cut a series of small ravines in the lower ridge line, leaving a terraced lower slope in the Bald Eagle Formation. On the neighboring Bald Eagle, Brush, and Dunning Mountain ridges to the west that formed the opposite side of the ancient mountain, the same three rock layers are exposed in reverse order, with the oldest rocks in-between, near the hinge of the fold.[3]

See also

References

  1. ^ https://viewer.nationalmap.gov/advanced-viewer/ The National Map, retrieved 12 November 2018
  2. ^ Pennsylvania State Game Lands Number 118, retrieved 12 November 2018
  3. ^ Description of the Geology of Centre County, Pennsylvania, libraries.psu.edu
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