Erosion

Kaaterskill Falls is the highest waterfall (260 feet high) in New York State. The ledge breaking the falls represents the contact between the Manorkill Sandstone (Middle Devonian Hamilton Group) and the overlying sandstone and shale of the Late Devonian Oneonta Formation (Catskill or Genesee Group). Kaaterskill Falls is along one of the headwater streams of the larger Kaaterskill Clove, a great ravine that has expanded as stream erosion has carved into the steep Catskill Mural Front. This headwater stream erosion began following the retreat of the Pleistocene glacier. Geologists have postulated that if the glaciers retreated from this area about 15,000 years ago then the rate of headwater migration is at an amazing one foot per year.

Kaaterskill Falls, Greene County, NY.

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