TOPOGRAPHIC MAP INTERPRETATION TECHNIQUES USED TO DETERMINE CASSELMAN RIVER DRAINAGE BASIN HISTORY, MARYLAND AND PENNSYLVANIA: A NEW PARADIGM DEMONSTRATION PAPER.

Topographic map evidence for previously unexplained Casselman River direction changes (including where it joins the Youghiogheny River) indicates prolonged and massive volumes of south-oriented water once flowed across the Conemaugh-Casselman River drainage divide and formed diverging southwest- and southeast-oriented channels with the southwest-oriented flow joining south-oriented flow on today’s north-oriented Youghiogheny River alignment. The southeast-oriented channel eroded a water gap across an emerging Negro Mountain and then a diverging southwest-oriented channel followed the northeast-oriented Casselman River alignment to reach south-oriented flow on the now north-oriented Youghiogheny River alignment while the southeast-oriented channel and a southeast-oriented channel which diverged from the southwest-oriented channel eroded the Flaughtery and Piney Creek water gaps into an emerging Meadow Mountain. Conemaugh River drainage system development ended south-oriented flow into the Casselman River drainage basin while regional uplift caused drainage reversals to create today’s northeast-, northwest-, and southwest-oriented Casselman River. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]