The Banks plate. Relief from Copernicus GLO-30; rivers and lakes from USGS NHD; watersheds from the USGS Watershed Boundary Dataset; roads and city limits from Census TIGER 2024.
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Banks’s center stands about 1,730 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,520 ft to 2,000 ft, a difference of 480 ft: hilly country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Kinter Hill, about 2,110 ft, 8 miles southwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Allegheny Formation (sandstone), from the Carboniferous, 299 to 324 million years old.
The section below crosses 2 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 25×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Shale. Age: Carboniferous, 299 to 324 million years old. About 14 mi of the line.
Sandstone. Age: Carboniferous, 299 to 324 million years old. About 10 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale.
Heights from Copernicus GLO-90 (a surface model: it includes buildings and tree canopy); summits from USGS GNIS; rivers from USGS NHDPlus HR; rock from the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation.
Banks straddles the Eastern Continental Divide. Rain on the west side runs to the Gulf of America; most of the rest goes to Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.
From the center of town, a raindrop reaches Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean by way of South Branch Bear Run, Bear Run, the West Branch Susquehanna and the Susquehanna: about 350 river miles. One that lands on the west side reaches the Gulf of America by way of Straight Run, Little Mahoning Creek, Mahoning Creek, the Allegheny, the Ohio and the Mississippi: about 2,060 river miles.
Lake on the way: Lake Aldred.
210 miles of the trip are on the West Branch Susquehanna.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Banks; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
