transverse stream

A transverse stream is a river course that cuts across structural zones, such as upwarps and fold belts, rather than following them. These streams appear to take the most difficult routes through folded regions, carving canyons into areas of resistance.1

Theories for the development of transverse drainage include:
* Antecedence: The river was in place before the landforms, like upwarps, began to rise.1
* Superimposition: A river developed on an overlying sedimentary cover and then cut through it as erosion exposed underlying structures.1
* Inheritance: A river exploits zones of weakness as it incises from a former erosion surface across structural trends.1

Stream capture, where one stream diverts another's flow, is common where longitudinal streams erode into transverse ones, leaving behind abandoned valleys called wind gaps. Water gaps, in contrast, still contain transverse streams.1