RIVER CAPTURE AS RELIEF EVOLUTION EVIDENCES: A REVIEW

Abstract

This paper presents a review about river capture history based on literature and scientific articles, rescuing several authors that were involved to the subject. River capture (or stream piracy) is the natural diversion of waters from a river basin to another, promoting the expansion of drainage in relation to the neighboring basin. Nowadays, most of authors seems to agree that this geomorphological process can occur by subtraction of a river by another, by head ward erosion, by general lateral planation, by river overflow over another, or by subterranean diversion of a river up to reach its neighboring. At the point of capture, the captured stream shows sharp change of its direction, known as elbow of capture. The captor river is named diverter or predatory stream and the upstream river is named captured part. River capture shows important evidences of relief evolution, as the presence of an elbow of capture, dry, died or abandoned valleys with pebbles over it, and knickpoints over the river profile.