Using a New Glacial History Paradigm and Bald Eagle Through Valley Topographic Map Evidence to Determine Central Pennsylvania’s Geomorphic History, USA

Abstract

A new glacial history paradigm that describes huge and prolonged southwest-oriented meltwater floods flowing along the rising rim of a deep “hole” (which a large continental icesheet created and occupied) is used to explain previously unexplained or poorly explained central Pennsylvania Bald Eagle through valley region topographic map evidence. Pennsylvania’s Bald Eagle through valley as defined here extends in a northeast direction from near Altoona to near Williamsport along the Allegheny Front escarpment base and forms the boundary between the Appalachian Plateau to the northwest and the Ridge and Valley Province to the southeast. The Lycoming and Towanda Creek valleys follow a probable northeastern Bald Eagle through valley extension and a probable southern extension continues southward along the Allegheny Front base by crossing Juniata River tributary drainage basins to reach the Potomac River drainage basin. Landform features identified on topographic maps, which include through valleys (valleys crossing drainage divides), barbed tributaries, drainage route orientations, drainage route direction changes, water gaps, and gaps located along the Allegheny Front crest, are used to reconstruct how the Pennsylvania Susquehanna and Juniata River drainage systems developed. The resulting geomorphic history describes how massive southwest-oriented floods moving across what was probably a low relief and rising surface (now preserved if preserved at all by the region’s highest elevations) flowed to an actively eroding Potomac River drainage system before being captured and sometimes reversed first by Juniata River valley headward erosion, second by West Branch Susquehanna River valley headward erosion (to create northeast-oriented Bald Eagle Creek and the northeast-oriented West Branch Susquehanna River segment) and third by North Branch Susquehanna River valley headward erosion. This interpretation explains most if not all of the previously poorly explained and unexplained topographic map evidence.