BIROn - Birkbeck Institutional Research Online

    Testing fluvial erosion models using the transient response of bedrock rivers to tectonic forcing in the Apennines, Italy

    Attal, M. and Cowie, P.A. and Whittaker, A.C. and Hobley, D. and Tucker, G.E. and Roberts, Gerald P. (2011) Testing fluvial erosion models using the transient response of bedrock rivers to tectonic forcing in the Apennines, Italy. Journal of Geophysical Research 116 (F2005), ISSN 0148-0227.

    [img]
    Preview
    Text (Refereed)
    roberts.pdf - Published Version of Record

    Download (1MB) | Preview

    Abstract

    The transient response of bedrock rivers to a drop in base level can be used to discriminate between competing fluvial erosion models. However, some recent studies of bedrock erosion conclude that transient river long profiles can be approximately characterized by a transport‐limited erosion model, while other authors suggest that a detachment‐limited model best explains their field data. The difference is thought to be due to the relative volume of sediment being fluxed through the fluvial system. Using a pragmatic approach, we address this debate by testing the ability of end‐member fluvial erosion models to reproduce the well‐documented evolution of three catchments in the central Apennines (Italy) which have been perturbed to various extents by an independently constrained increase in relative uplift rate. The transport‐limited model is unable to account for the catchments’response to the increase in uplift rate, consistent with the observed low rates of sediment supply to the channels. Instead, a detachment‐limited model with a threshold corresponding to the field‐derived median grain size of the sediment plus a slope‐dependent channel width satisfactorily reproduces the overall convex long profiles along the studied rivers. Importantly, we find that the prefactor in the hydraulic scaling relationship is uplift dependent, leading to landscapes responding faster the higher the uplift rate, consistent with field observations. We conclude that a slope‐ dependent channel width and an entrainment/erosion threshold are necessary ingredients when modeling landscape evolution or mapping the distribution of fluvial erosion rates in areas where the rate of sediment supply to channels is low.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Article
    Additional Information: Copyright 2011 by the American Geophysical Union
    Keyword(s) / Subject(s): river, erosion, tectonics, modeling, transient landscapes
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Science > School of Natural Sciences
    Depositing User: Sarah Hall
    Date Deposited: 18 Oct 2013 09:13
    Last Modified: 02 Aug 2023 17:08
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/8489

    Statistics

    Activity Overview
    6 month trend
    441Downloads
    6 month trend
    293Hits

    Additional statistics are available via IRStats2.

    Archive Staff Only (login required)

    Edit/View Item Edit/View Item