Question

Stream Piracy – Kaaterskill, NY. Check and double-click the Problem 15 folder. The dark blue and orange streams highlight the process of stream piracy/stream capture (i.e., they are pirating/capturing the headwaters of the cyan and magenta streams, respectively). Which of the following helps promote this?

a. The pirating streams are larger and can hold more water than the other streams.
b. The pirating streams are eroding headwardly to intersect more of the other streams’ drainage basins, causing water to be diverted down their steeper gradients.
c. The land to the west is being uplifted.
d. Landslides have diverted the water into the stream pirates.

Answer 1

b. The pirating streams are eroding headwardly to intersect more of the other streams’ drainage basins, causing water to be diverted down their steeper gradients.

Step-by-step explanation:

From the Kaaterskill NY 15 minute map (1906), this shows two classic examples of stream capture.

The Kaaterskill Creek flow down the east relatively steep slopes into the Hudson River Valley. While, the Gooseberry Creek is a low gradient stream flowing down the west direction which in turn drains the higher parts of the Catskills in this area.

However, there is Headward erosion of Kaaterskill Creek which resulted to the capture of part of the headwaters of Gooseberry Creek.

The evidence for this is the presence of "barbed" (enters at obtuse rather than acute angle) tributary which enters Kaaterskill Creek from South Lake which was once a part of the Gooseberry Creek drainage system.

It should be noted again, that there is drainage divide between the Gooseberry and Kaaterskill drainage systems (just to the left of the word Twilight) which is located in the center of the valley.

As it progresses, this divide will then move westward as Kaaterskill captures more and more of the Gooseberry system.