Little Mahanoy Creek
Little Mahanoy Creek is a 7.5 miles (12.1 km) tributary of Mahanoy Creek in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. It starts in the borough of Frackville and joins Mahanoy Creek in the borough of Gordon. Its one named tributary is Rattling Run. The creek's watershed has an area of 11.6 square miles (30 km2). Its watershed is not affected by mining. Compounds found in the waters of the creek include nitrogen, phosphorus, orthophosphates, phosphates, nitrates, and ammonia.
Little Mahanoy Creek starts in Frackville and heads westward past a pond or small lake. It then drops steeply through a steep narrow valley between Ashland Mountain and Broad Mountain, which abruptly widens out a short distance downstream. The creek then flows on the northern edge of Broad Mountain to the borough of Gordon, where it picks up Rattling Run before flowing into Mahanoy Creek.
Rattling Run flows into Little Mahanoy Creek in Gordon, not far from Little Mahanoy Creek's mouth. It rises from springs on the slopes of Broad Mountain.
The watershed of Little Mahanoy Creek has an area of 11.6 square miles (30 km2). Areas in the watershed include the southern side of Ashland Mountain between Frackville and the creek's mouth.
Little Mahanoy Creek flows through a valley between Ashland Mountain and Broad Mountain. The valley is very steep and narrow near the creek's headwaters, but becomes broader further downstream, being close to 2.0 miles (3.2 km) wide at the mouth. The creek lies over a layer of red shale. Below the shale is a layer of hard and compact sandstone, which has some black, carbon-containing matter in it.
Little Mahanoy Creek is one of the only tributaries of Mahanoy Creek that is not affected by mining in the area. The other is Schwaben Creek.
The average discharge of Little Mahanoy Creek, as measured in late 2008 and early 2009 2.3 cubic feet per second and 14.9 cubic feet per second, with an average of 8.02 cubic feet per second. The discharge steadily increased between September 2008 and April 2009. In the same time period, the water temperature ranged between 39.2 °F (4.0 °C) and 54.3 °F (12.4 °C). The average temperature during that time was 46.2 °F (7.9 °C). The measurement in September 2008 was the highest and the measurement in March 2009 was the lowest. The electrical conductivity of the creek 0.169 to 0.295 thousandths of a siemens. The average conductivity was 0.238 thousands of a siemens.
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