The Black Canyon of the Gunnison and Unaweep Canyon in western Colorado have long been viewed as classic examples of post-Laramide Plio-Pleistocene uplift, which in the case of Unaweep, is thought to have forced the Gunnison River to abandon the canyon. Ongoing fi eld studies of the incision histories of these canyons and their surrounding regions, however, suggest that post-Laramide rock uplift has been regional, rather than local in nature. River incision rates calculated using ca. 10 Ma basaltic lava fl ows as a late Miocene datum suggest that long-term incision rates range from 61 to 142 m/m.y. with rates decreasing eastward towards the central Rocky Mountains. Incision rates calculated using the ca. 640 ka Lava Creek B ash range from 95 to 162 m/m.y., decrease eastward towards the mountains, and are broadly similar in magnitude to the longer-term incision rates. Locally, incision rates are as high as 500-600 m/m.y. along the lower reaches of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, and these anomalously high values refl ect transient knickpoint migration upvalley. Knickpoint migration was controlled, in part, by downvalley base-level changes related to stream piracy. For example, abandonment of Unaweep Canyon by the Gunnison River could have led to rapid incision through erodible Mancos Shale as the Gunnison River joined the Colorado River on its course around the northern end of the Uncompahgre Plateau. Geophysical data show that abandonment of Unaweep Canyon was not caused by differential uplift of the crest of Unaweep Canyon relative to the surrounding basins. Instead, the ancestral (Plio-Pleistocene?) Gunnison River fl owed through Cactus Park, a major paleovalley that feeds into Unaweep Canyon, and continued downvalley to its juncture with the Dolores River near present-day Gateway, Colorado. The average gradient of the ancestral Gunnison River through the canyon prior to abandonment was ~7.5-7.6 m/km. Lithological and mineralogical considerations suggest that the Colorado River also fl owed through and helped to carve Unaweep Canyon, although the Colorado River probably exited Unaweep Canyon prior to abandonment by the Gunnison River. The ancestral Gunnison River remained in its course and incised through bedrock for a long enough period of time to produce terrace remnants in the Cactus Park region that range in elevation from 2000 to 1880 m. Abandonment of the canyon by the Gunnison River was followed by formation of a natural dam that probably led to deposition upvalley of ~50 m of lacustrine sediments in Cactus Park. Recent mapping in the lower reaches of Unaweep Canyon indicate that a landslide could have led to damming of Unaweep Canyon, perhaps while it was occupied by underfi t streams.

Cosmogenic-burial and U-series dating, identifi cation of fl uvial terraces and lacustrine deposits, and river profi le reconstructions show that capture of the GunnisonRiver by the Colorado River and abandonment of Unaweep Canyon (Colorado, USA) occurred between 1.4 and 0.8 Ma. This event led to a rapid pulse of incision unlike any documented in the Rocky Mountains. Following abandonment of Unaweep Canyon by the ancestral Gunnison River, a wave of incision propagated upvalley rapidly through Mancos Shale at rates of ~90-440 km/m.y. The Gunnison River removed 400-500 km 3 of erodible Mancos Shale and incised as deep as 360 m in 0.17-0.76 m.y. (incision rates of ~470-2250 m/m.y.). Prior to canyon abandonment, long-term (ca. 11-1 Ma) Gunnison River incision averaged ~100 m/m.y.The wave of incision also caused the subsequent capture of the Bostwick-Shinn Park River by the ancestral Uncompahgre River ca. 0.87-0.64 Ma, at a location ~70 km upvalley from Unaweep Canyon. This event led to similarly rapid (to ~500 m/m.y.) but localized river incision. As regional river incision progressed, the juxtaposition of resistant Precambrian bedrock and erodible Mancos Shale within watersheds favored the devel-opment of signifi cant relief between adjacent stream segments, which led to stream piracy. The response of rivers to the abandonment of Unaweep Canyon illustrates how the mode and tempo of long-term fl uvial incision are punctuated by short-term geomorphic events such as stream piracy. These shortterm events can trigger signifi cant landscape changes, but the effects are more localized relative to regional climatically or tectonically driven events.

Newly discovered lacustrine strata suggest that the most signifi cant episode of stream capture in the upper Colorado River system (western USA), namely the abandonment of Unaweep Canyon, probably involved a combination of headward erosion and lake spillover. The abandonment of Unaweep Canyon occurred in two stages. The fi rst stage was marked by the capture of the Colorado River, after which time the Gunnison River continued to incise. Continued incision by the Gunnison River created a wall of rock on the east side of the Gunnison River valley in Cactus Park and left the abandoned Colorado River bed well above the Gunnison River. The second stage involved two blockages, one created by the thick fi ll within Unaweep Canyon and one at the south end of Cactus Park, which led to the creation of a lake within Cactus Park. The lake level rose until it fl ooded the abandoned Colorado River bed and spilled over at the point where the Colorado River had been captured earlier, during the fi rst stage of abandonment. Present-day East Creek was created by re-incision of the abandoned Colorado River course, which explains why the course of East Creek has a northeastward trend that is completely anomalous with respect to all other tributaries draining this area of the Uncom pahgre Plateau. The rapid incision created a large quantity of debris that defl ected the Gunnison River eastward at the mouth of East Creek. The evidence suggests that the abandonment of Cactus Park and Unaweep Canyon by the Gunnison River and the creation and destruction of Cactus Park lake all likely occurred ca. 800 ka and shortly thereafter. The Unaweep Canyon classic example of stream piracy illustrates how piracy alone can dramatically infl uence landscape development even in the absence of signifi cant tectonic and climatic infl uences.

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