White Deer Hole Creek - Geology

Geology

White Deer Hole Creek is in a sandstone, limestone, and shale mountain region, entirely in the Ridge-and-valley Appalachians. South and North White Deer Ridge and Bald Eagle Mountain are composed of sedimentary Ordovician rock, while the valley rock is Silurian, with a small Devonian region closer to the river, in the north. The watershed has no deposits of coal, nor natural gas or oil fields. The creek is in a narrow mountain valley with steep slopes in its upper reaches. In its middle and lower reaches it has steep mountain slopes to the south, and a wide valley with rolling hills and gentle slopes to the north. The channel pattern is transitional, with a trellised drainage pattern.

From 1961 to 1995, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) operated one stream gauge on White Deer Hole Creek at the Gap Road bridge (upstream of Elimsport), for the uppermost 18.2 square miles (47 km2) of the watershed. The highest yearly peak discharge measured at this site was 4,200 cubic feet (120 m3) per second and the highest yearly peak gauge height was 11.83 feet (3.61 m), both on June 22, 1972, during Hurricane Agnes. The lowest yearly peak discharge in this time period was 135 cubic feet (3.8 m3) per second and the lowest yearly peak gauge height was 4.29 feet (1.31 m), both on November 26, 1986. The USGS also measured discharge at Allenwood, very near the creek's mouth, as part of water quality measurements on seven occasions between 1970 and 1975. The average discharge was 70.4 cubic feet (1.99 m3) per second, and ranged from a high of 111 cubic feet (3.1 m3) per second to a low of 33 cubic feet (0.93 m3) per second. There are no other known stream gauges on the creek.