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1.
Reconnaissance level geomorphological observations in the northern part of Evia (Euboea) Island, suggest that a major topographic feature, the 17 km long and 15 km wide Nileas depression (NDpr), corresponds to a previously undetected graben structure, bounded by fault zones of ENE–WSW to NE–SW general strike. These fault zones have been active in the Quaternary, since they affect the Neogene deposits of the Limni–Histiaia basin. They strike transverse to the NW–SE active fault zones that bound northern Evia in the specific area and are characterised along most of their length by subtle geomorphic signatures in areas of extensive forest cover and poor exposure.The NDpr was formed during the Early–Middle Quaternary, after the deposition of the Neogene basin fill. During the Middle–Late Quaternary, the NW–SE fault zones that bound northern Evia have been the main active structures, truncating and uplifting the NDpr to a perched position in relation to the northern Gulf of Evia graben and the submarine basin on the Aegean side of the island. The present-day morphology of the NDpr, with an interior (floor) comprised of Middle Pleistocene erosional surfaces extensively dissected by drainages, was shaped by erosion during this uplift. Judging from their geomorphic signatures, the fault zones that bound the NDpr must have been characterised by low or very low rates of activity during the Late Quaternary. Yet, that they may still be accommodating strain today is suggested by moderate earthquakes that have been recorded within the NDpr.The fault zone at the SE flank of the NDpr (Prokopi–Pelion fault zone) may be very important in terms of earthquake segmentation of the active NW–SE Dirfys fault zone that controls the Aegean coast of northern Evia, given that the intersection between the two presents striking morpho-structural similarities with the intersection of two fault zones with the same directions on the mainland (the Atalanti and Hyampolis fault zones), which is known to have acted as a barrier to the propagation of the Atalanti earthquake ruptures in 1894.  相似文献   

2.
Studies of normal fault systems in modern extensional regimes (e.g. Basin and Range), and in exhumed, ancient rift basins (e.g. Gulf of Suez Rift) have shown a link between the evolution of fault‐related footwall topography and associated erosional drainage systems. In this study, we use 3D seismic reflection data to image the footwall crest of a gravity‐driven fault system developed during late Middle Jurassic to Early Cretaceous rifting on the Halten Terrace, offshore Mid‐Norway. This 22‐km‐long fault system lacks significant footwall uplift, with hangingwall subsidence accommodating throw accumulation on the fault system. Significant erosion has occurred along the length of the footwall crest and is defined by 96 catchments characterized by erosional channels. These erosional channels consist of small, linear systems up to 750 m long located along the front of the fault footwall. Larger, dendritic channel systems extend further back (up to 3 km normal to fault strike) into the footwall. These channels are up to 7 km long, up to 50 m deep and up to 1 km wide. Fault throw varies along strike, with greatest throw in the centre of the fault decreasing towards the fault tips; localized throw minima are interpreted to represent segment linkage points, which were breached as the fault grew. Comparison of the catchment location to the throw distribution shows that the largest catchments are in the centre of the fault and decrease in size to the fault tips. There is no link between the location of the breached segment linkage points and the location and size of the footwall catchments, suggesting that the first‐order control on footwall erosion patterns is the overall fault‐throw distribution.  相似文献   

3.
Bank sediments along a 40 km reach of the South River, downstream of Waynesboro, VA, store mercury from historical contamination as a result of textile manufacturing. Knowledge of the rate at which contaminated sediment is released to the stream channel through bank erosion is required to implement restoration programs designed, for example, to minimize its ecological impact and to reduce risk to human health. Digitized stream channel boundaries based on visual interpretations of georeferenced aerial imagery from 1937 and 2005 were compared to calculate a minimum estimate of the total area of bank sediment eroded between Waynesboro and Port Republic, Virginia. Estimates of riverbank height were extracted from aerial LIDAR data, allowing areal estimates of bank retreat to be converted to volumes. Nominal annual rates of bank retreat, averaged over the 68-year period, for several example locales along the study reach are very low, ranging from 3 to 15 cm per year. Bank erosion occurs at the outside banks of bends, through the development of islands, where deposition on confluence bars pushes the main flow into the opposite bank, and in small areas along the channel that are difficult to classify or explain. A minimum estimate of the total volume eroded for the study reach is approximately 161,000 m3; the corresponding annual mass of mercury supplied to the channel by bank erosion is 109.6 kg/year. Our work demonstrates that a careful analysis of aerial imagery and LIDAR data can provide detailed, spatially explicit estimates of mercury loading from bank erosion, even when rates of riverbank erosion are unusually low.  相似文献   

4.
《Geomorphology》2006,73(1-2):131-148
This study used airborne laser altimetry (LiDAR) to examine the surface morphology of two canyon-rim landslides in southern Idaho. The high resolution topographic data were used to calculate surface roughness, slope, semivariance, and fractal dimension. These data were combined with historical movement data (Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and laser theodolite) and field observations for the currently active landslide, and the results suggest that topographic elements are related to the material types and the type of local motion of the landslide. Weak, unconsolidated materials comprising the toe of the slide, which were heavily fractured and locally thrust upward, had relatively high surface roughness, high fractal dimension, and high vertical and lateral movement. The body of the slide, which predominantly moved laterally and consists mainly of undisturbed, older canyon floor materials, had relatively lower surface roughness than the toe. The upper block, consisting of a down-dropped section of the canyon rim that has remained largely intact, had a low surface roughness on its upper surface and high surface roughness along fractures and on its west face (unrelated to landslide motion). The upper block also had a higher semivariance than the toe and body. The topographic data for a neighboring, older and larger landslide complex, which failed in 1937, are similarly used to understand surface morphology, as well as to compare to the morphology of the active landslide and to understand scale-dependent processes. The morphometric analyses demonstrate that the active landslide has a similar failure mechanism and is topographically more variable than the 1937 landslide, especially at scales > 20 m. Weathering and the larger scale processes of the 1937 slide are hypothesized to cause the lower semivariance values of the 1937 slide. At smaller scales (< 10 m) the topographic components of the two landslides have similar roughness and semivariance. Results demonstrate that high resolution topographic data have the potential to differentiate morphological components within a landslide and provide insight into the material type and activity of the slide. The analyses and results in this study would not have been possible with coarser scale digital elevation models (10-m DEM). This methodology is directly applicable to analyzing other geomorphic surfaces at appropriate scales, including glacial deposits and stream beds.  相似文献   

5.
《Geomorphology》2007,83(1-2):183-192
Wind-splash is a process in which wind and rain combine to cause soil erosion. In upland Britain, the conditions necessary for wind-splash erosion are relatively common and frequently occur in locations where blanket peat is an important land cover. A typical location is Moss Flats (North Pennines, northern England, UK). Wind-splash processes were monitored intensively at this site over 3 months using a circular configuration of mass flux sediment samplers, and meteorological data logged from an on-site automatic weather station. Maximum peat flux rates were measured between south-southwest and west-northwest directions in association with relatively moderate intensity, frontal rainfall, typically 4–6 mm h− 1. Wind-splash processes operate in any direction due to changeable synoptic weather patterns. Windward peat fluxes were typically 2–13 times greater than those recorded at leeward orientations. Spatial patterns of erosion are reflected in the wider landscape through the development of small-scale, erosional landforms (peat hags), which frequently display preferred orientations within the range of maximum peat flux. It is suggested that wind-splash may be a more important process of peat erosion than hitherto reported in UK upland areas.  相似文献   

6.
Abstract The initial stages of rift-basin evolution are periods of great landform change. Fault scarps are newly created axes of erosion which, along with footwall uplands, act as sediment sources for subsiding hanging wall basins. Scarps formed during neotectonic normal faulting of Mesozoic carbonates in mainland Greece and western Turkey display a varied pattern of degradation related to the history of fault development and variations in fault zone architecture. Alternating zone-parallel compact breccia sheets and incohesive breccia belts, of contrasting resistance to erosion, underlie scarps. Meso-scale slip-plane phenomena, such as corrugations, gutters, comb fractures, and pluck holes, together with geomorphological features, such as subsurface solution pipes, and vegetation result in initial variations in the denudability of erosionally resistant compact breccia sheets. Migration with time of slip-plane activity within a fault zone into its hanging wall (i.e. intrafault-zone hanging wall collapse) adds to the structural heterogeneity of fault scarp footwalls. Quaternary talus, whether offset across a fault, banked unconformably against a slip plane, or faulted against a reactivated slip plane, has a dampening effect on degradation. The complexities of fault zone architecture combined with a history of hanging wall collapse lead, in the Aegean region, to non-uniform degradation and scarps which are commonly stepped and occasionally cavitated.  相似文献   

7.
The northeast-trending Pallatanga right-lateral strike-slip fault runs across the Western Cordillera connecting N50E-N70E trending normal faults in the Gulf of Guayaquil with N-S reverse faults in the Interandean Depression. Over most of its length, the fault trace has been partly obscured by erosional processes and can be inferred in the topography only at the large scale. Only the northern fault segment, which follows the upper Rio Pangor valley at elevations above 3600 m, is prominent in the morphology. Valleys and ridges cut and offset by the fault provide an outstanding record of right-lateral cumulative fault displacement. The fault geometry and kinematics of this particular fault segment can be determined from detailed topographic levellings. The fault strikes N30E and dips 75 to the NW. Depending on their size and nature, transverse morphological features such as tributaries of the Rio Pangor and intervening ridges, reveal right-lateral offsets which cluster around 27 ± 11m, 41.5 ± 4 m, 590 ± 65 m and 960 ± 70 m. The slip vector deduced from the short-term offsets shows a slight reverse component with a pitch of about 11.5 SW. The 41.5 ± 4 m displacements are assumed to be coeval with the last glacial termination, yielding a mean Holocene slip-rate of 2.9- 4.6 mm yr−1. Assuming a uniform slip rate on the fault in the long term, the 27 m offset appears to correlate with an identified middle Holocene morphoclimatic event, and the long term offsets of 590 m and 960 m coincide with the glacial terminations at the beginning of the last two interglacial periods.  相似文献   

8.
《Geomorphology》2005,64(1-2):97-116
This paper provides an analysis of relationships between drainage patterns and fractures in the part of Sierra Nevada, California, north of the Yosemite Valley. Bedrock is Cretaceous granite and cut by numerous lineaments of various orientation, length and geomorphic expression. We have mapped fractures and drainage lines from aerial photographs, 1:40 000 scale, in four test areas ranging in size from 32.5 to 266 km2. Azimuths are shown on rose diagrams for fractures and drainage lines and then visually and statistically compared. The coincidence of drainage and fracture patterns is strong, which implies causal relationships. In plan, the majority of valleys follow fractures even if this locally means a different orientation in respect to the regional slope arising from tectonic tilt of the range. Main streams occupy deeply incised troughs coincident with ‘master fractures’ of regional extent. Among two principal fracture directions, SSW–NNE to SW–NE and WSW–ENE, the former exerts more control on the drainage lines. The presence of a central zone of structural weakness within the major valleys provided significant constraints for the course of glacial erosion and may explain why multiple Pleistocene glaciers did not succeed in transforming valley cross-sections into expected U-shapes.  相似文献   

9.
This paper presents the results of morphotectonic and morphometric research carried out in order to determine the neotectonic development of the volcanic mountains and a drainage network in SW Cappadocia. The study area extends among the Aksaray, Ni?de, and Nev?ehir Provinces. The study area comprises Hasanda?, Melendiz, Keçiboyduran, Göllüda? Mountains and the adjacent parts of these volcanic mountains.Data collected exclusively from 1:25,000 digitised topographic maps and 10 m-resolution DEMs were used to define parameters related to the longitudinal profile of streams. The study area was divided into 10 volcanic units. Longitudinal profiles of 20 streams and stream orders were analysed to determine a regional tectonic differentiation pattern in these units. The streams in the study area drain into four different tectonic depressions. These depressions are Aksaray plain controlled by the Tuz Gölü fault (TGF), Çiftlik plain controlled by the Keçiboyduran–Melendiz fault (KMF), Misli plain controlled by the Derinkuyu fault (DF), and Bor plain controlled by the Ni?de Fault Zone (NFZ). An analysis of morphometric parameters shows that the development of a drainage network is associated with faults and rock resistance. Occurrence of morphometric parameters with different values in units reveals that the volcanic mountains were not uplifted in the same period and were subjected to different morphologic processes. High total order number in the south of Hasanda? (unit 3) and Melendiz Mountains (unit 7) indicate that the uplift ratio of the southern part is much greater than that of the northern part. Moreover, development of the drainage network in the south is in a more advanced phase than in the north. Indeed, the drainage network in the north is in the youngest erosional phase of all parts of the study area. The increased stream length-gradient indices (SL), and stream gradients and an analysis of headward erosion show that the streams displaying the longest and highest reach of the erosional phase are all in the southern part of Keçiboyduran and Melendiz Mountains. The longitudinal profile (Lp) of the present thalweg of the streams is irregular. The irregular Lp are associated with four different causes. These are geological variations in resistance, tectonics, and volcanic topography and downcutting in response to stream incision. The beginning of the fluvial incision in the northern part is younger than in the south.  相似文献   

10.
The Kunlun fault is one of the largest strike-slip faults in northern Tibet, China. In this paper, we focus upon the Kusai Lake–Kunlun Pass segment of the fault to understand the geomorphic development of offset streams caused by repeated large seismic events, based on tectono-geomorphic analysis of high-resolution satellite remote sensing images combined with field studies. The results indicate that systematic left-lateral stream offsets appear at various scales across the fault zone: Lateral offsets of small gullies caused by the 2001 Mw 7.8 Kunlun earthquake vary typically from 3 m to 6 m, meanwhile streams with cumulative offsets of 10 m, 25–30 m, 50–70 m, 250–300 m and 750–1400 m have resulted from repeated large seismic events during the late Quaternary. An average slip rate of 10 ± 1 mm/year has been estimated from the lateral stream offsets and 14C ages of alluvial fan surfaces incised by the streams. A three-dimensional model showing tectono-geomorphic features along a left-lateral strike-slip fault is also presented. The Kusai Lake–Kunlun Pass segment provides an opportunity to understand the relationship between geomorphic features produced by individual large seismic events and long-term geomorphic development caused by repeated large seismic events along a major strike-slip fault.  相似文献   

11.
Wind erosion of soil is an appreciable but unstudied event following fires in cold desert. We examined aeolian transport of sediment for 1 year following fire in semi-arid shrub steppe on loess soils in southern Idaho, USA. Sediment collectors were used to determine horizontal mass transport of soil and saltation sensors and anemometers were used to determine saltation activity (fraction of time having saltation) and threshold wind speed in an area burned in August and an unburned control site. Horizontal mass transport (per 30-day period) was negligible in the unburned area, but in the burned area was 5.40 kg m?1 in October and decreased to 2.80 kg m?1 in November and 0.32 kg m?1 in December. Saltation activity was high enough to determine threshold wind speeds only in the burn site during fall, when values ranged from 10.0 to 10.6 m s?1. Sediment flux and saltation activity in the burned site became much less pronounced following the emergence of herbaceous vegetation in the spring. Post-fire sediment flux in the shrub steppe we examined was of greater magnitude but shorter duration than post-fire fluxes in warm deserts or sandier regions that experience more frequent wind erosion.  相似文献   

12.
《Geomorphology》2002,42(3-4):255-278
The Hunter Mountain fault zone strikes northwesterly, is right-lateral strike-slip, and kinematically links the northern Panamint Valley fault zone to the southern Saline Valley fault zone. The most recent displacement of the fault is recorded in the offset of Holocene deposits along the entire length of the fault zone. Right-lateral offsets of drainage channels within Grapevine Canyon reach up to 50 to 60 m. Initial incision of the offset channels is interpreted on the basis of geomorphic and climatic considerations to have occurred approximately 15 ka. The 50 to 60 m of offset during 15 ka corresponds to a right-lateral fault slip rate of 3.3–4.0 mm/year within Grapevine Canyon. Further to the north along the Nelson Range front, the fault is composed of two sub-parallel fault strands and the fault begins to show an increased normal component of motion. A channel margin that is incised into a Holocene surface that is between 10 and 128 ka in age is offset 16–20 m, which yields a broad minimum bound on the lateral slip rate of 0.125–2.0 mm/year. The best preserved single-event displacements recorded in Holocene deposits range from 1.5 to 2.5 m. In addition to faulting within Grapevine Canyon and the main rangefront fault along the southwest edge of Saline Valley, there also exist normal fault strands within the Valley that strike northeasterly and towards Eureka Valley. The northeasterly striking normal faults in the Valley appear to be actively transferring dextral slip from the Hunter Mountain fault zone north and east onto the Furnace Creek fault zone. Separations on northerly trending, normal faults within Saline Valley yield estimates of slip rates in the hundredths of millimeters per year.  相似文献   

13.
Woody vegetation affects channel morphogenesis in Ozark streams of Missouri and Arkansas by increasing local roughness, increasing bank strength, providing sedimentation sites, and creating obstructions to flow. Variations in physiographic controls on channel morphology result in systematic changes in vegetation patterns and geomorphic functions with increasing drainage basin area. In upstream reaches, streams have abundant bedrock control and bank heights that typically are less than or equal to the rooting depth of trees. In downstream reaches where valleys are wider and alluvial banks are higher vegetation has different geomorphic functions. At drainage areas of greater than 100–200 kM2, Ozarks streams are characterized by longitudinally juxtaposed reaches of high and low lateral channel migration rates, referred to as disturbance reaches and stable reaches, respectively. Whereas stable reaches can develop stable forested floodplains (if they are not farmed), disturbance reaches are characterized by dynamic vegetation communities that interact with erosion and deposition processes.Disturbance reaches can be subdivided into low-gradient and high-gradient longitudinal zones. Low-energy zones are characterized by incremental, unidirectional lateral channel migration and deposition of gravel and sand bars. The bars are characterized by prominent bands of woody vegetation and ridge and swale topography. Channel monitoring data indicate that densely vegetated bands of woody vegetation formed depositional sites during bedload-transporting events. The same floods caused up to 20 m of erosion of adjacent cutbanks, scoured non-vegetated areas between vegetation bands, and increased thalweg depth and definition. In high-energy (or riffle) zones, channel movement is dominantly by avulsion. In these zones, vegetation creates areas of erosional resistance that become temporary islands as the channel avulses around or through them. Woody vegetation on islands creates steep, root-defended banks that contribute to narrow channels with high velocities.Calculation of hydraulic roughness from density and average diameter of woody vegetation groups of different ages indicates that flow resistance provided by vegetation decreases systematically with group age, mainly through decreasing stem density. If all other factors remain constant, the stabilizing effect of a group of woody vegetation on a gravel bar decreases with vegetation age.  相似文献   

14.
In southern South America, the maximum areal extent of ice during the Quaternary Period, the Greatest Patagonian Glaciation (GPG, [Mercer, J.H., 1983. Cenozoic glaciation in the southern hemisphere. Annual Reviews of Earth and Planetary Science 11, 99–132.]), occurred at 1.1 Ma and subsequent glaciations were overall less extensive. The GPG preceded global minimum temperatures and maximal volume of ice, which occurred in the last ~ 800 kyr, as recorded in the marine δ18O record. Significant modification of the drainage morphology of the southern Andes from a non-glaciated to glaciated landscape occurred throughout the Quaternary Period. We infer a non-climatic relationship between glacial modification of the mountains and the decreasing extent of ice and we discuss processes of landscape development that could have caused the trend. Specifically, these include modification of valleys, such as development from a V- to a U-shape, and lowering of mass-accumulation areas. Such changes would strongly affect glacial dynamics, the mass balance profile and mass-flux during succeeding glaciations, especially for low-gradient outlet glaciers occupying low areas. Other areas around Earth (at least where ice has been warm-based) also may exhibit a non-random trend of decreasing extent of ice with time, ultimately because of glacial erosion in the Quaternary Period.  相似文献   

15.
聂娟  连健  胡卓玮 《地理研究》2014,33(2):214-224
“5.12”汶川大地震触发了大量滑坡,给人民群众生命财产和社会经济发展造成了巨大损失。基于GIS空间分析方法,结合震前和震后的滑坡编目数据,对滑坡与坡度、坡向、高程、岩土类型、道路、河流和断裂带等7个孕灾环境因素的空间分布关系进行统计分析。结果表明：滑坡与孕灾环境因素的空间分布关系受地震的影响比较大。相比于震前,震后滑坡发生的优势坡度、优势岩土类型、优势距离缓冲区等均发生了很大的变化;并且坡向、距道路距离、距河流距离等因素对滑坡有明显地趋势性影响。  相似文献   

16.
聂娟  连健  胡卓玮 《地理研究》2014,33(2):214-224
“5.12”汶川大地震触发了大量滑坡,给人民群众生命财产和社会经济发展造成了巨大损失。基于GIS空间分析方法,结合震前和震后的滑坡编目数据,对滑坡与坡度、坡向、高程、岩土类型、道路、河流和断裂带等7个孕灾环境因素的空间分布关系进行统计分析。结果表明：滑坡与孕灾环境因素的空间分布关系受地震的影响比较大。相比于震前,震后滑坡发生的优势坡度、优势岩土类型、优势距离缓冲区等均发生了很大的变化;并且坡向、距道路距离、距河流距离等因素对滑坡有明显地趋势性影响。  相似文献   

17.
Large-scale, low-gradient ancient landslides estimated at 5.4–18.9 km2 in area and  0.2–1.2 km3 in volume have been studied in the northern hilly periphery of the Crimean Mountains (Ukraine). They originated on slopes along wide water gaps of rivers (Belbek, Kacha, Alma and Biyuk–Karasu) crossing the cuestas of the northern foothills. The slopes generally consist of slightly northward tilting Miocene (mainly Sarmatian) limestones overlying weak, clay-rich Lower Neogene–Palaeogene substratum with a significant content of smectite. Although the region is characterised by the least active contemporary morphodynamics within the Crimean Mountains, the landslides which were studied are of the same size or even larger than various types of landslides occupying active geomorphic domains of the highest mountain range in the southernmost part of the peninsula. The landslides are generally a spreading type, but the sliding mechanics were probably very complex, involving toppling, rotational slides, gravitational folding and translational block slides. All the landslides which were studied are located in the vicinity of regional faults and three of them have headscarps aligned along faults. A common feature is also a location close (within several km) to the Mesozoic suture zone which is the most important tectonic feature in the northern periphery of the Crimean Orogene. This suture was formerly classified as aseismic; however, evidence of strong, low-frequency palaeoearthquakes was collected during the last decade within both the Mesozoic suture and the low-lying northern part of the Crimean Peninsula. Radiocarbon dating of deposits associated with the landslides has revealed at least two phases of increased landslide-activity during the Late Glacial chronozone and Holocene epoch. The main landslide phase presumably took place at some time between the Late Glacial and Atlantic chronozones. Minor reactivation of landslide toes occurred during the Subatlantic chronozone and some of them have been active up to recent times. The first major landslide phase was possibly triggered by an earthquake, whereas late Holocene activity can be attributed both to seismic and hydroclimatic factors.  相似文献   

18.
In the Northern Campanian coastal zone, over 150 km long, three geomorphic units are recognised: (1) sandy beaches that are well developed in the northern area, where a prominent river mouth (Volturno River) is also present; (2) steep and rocky shores, often with gravelly beaches or debris cones at their base, are mainly diffuse in the southern area (Sorrentine Peninsula); and, lastly, (3) “techno coast”, shorelines stabilized with revetments and seawalls as well as former natural environments no longer clearly operational because of urbanization, as is visible in Naples and in the Vesuvian coast. Six primary hazards are considered in this investigation: shoreline erosion, riverine flooding, storms, landslides, seismicity and volcanism, and man-made structures. These hazards do not have a uniform distribution along this coast in terms of their frequency and intensity; moreover both their interaction and the intensive action of humans, often uncontrolled, makes it difficult to assess the overall coastal hazard. In this paper a semi-quantitative method with which to quantify, rank and map the distribution of hazard is applied along this particular stretch of coast. In such a stretch, previously characterized in terms of types and processes and compartmentalized into geomorphic units, the effect of individual hazards, based on their magnitude and recurrence, is evaluated. Dominant and subordinate hazards for each geomorphic unit are identified, assigning a rank that is also a weighting. Comparison of each weighting through an interaction matrix permits the calculation of a resultant, which is the overall hazard assessment and which can be expressed cartographically. The results obtained for a coastal zone with one of the highest pressures from urbanization in the world, help us to recognise that this approach could become a useful tool to aid decision-making regarding coastal land-use and planning.  相似文献   

19.
A quantitative geomorphological study has been made on 27 river basins in Tahiti-Nui volcanic island (French Polynesia) to reconstruct the erosional evolution of a young oceanic island subjected to heavy tropical rainfall. Tahiti-Nui is composed of a main shield volcano cut by two huge landslides on each side of a main E–W rift zone. The northern landslide depression was rapidly buried by the construction of a second shield, the late activity of which overflowed the crest and then filled the southern landslide depression. The island is now volcanically inactive and is deeply dissected by erosion. The present geometries of the river basins are first compared using dimensionless parameters derived from a digital elevation model. The original volcanic surfaces are then reconstructed to estimate the volumes removed by erosion and determine the average rates of long-term erosion. The basins developed on the flanks of the main shield are wider, shallower, and gentler than the basins incising the post-landslide second shield, indicating a higher degree of evolution. Rainfall concentration on the windward (eastern) side of the island also contributed to increase the vertical lowering of the volcanic relief and the enlargement of the valleys. The magnitude of erosion, however, is neither directly linked with the age of the units incised nor with the differential amounts of rainfall. Erosion rates determined over the last 1 Myr range between 10− 3 km3 kyr− 1 and 0.25 km3 kyr− 1. The highest values occur in the basins incising the main E–W rift zone and/or the lateral rims of the northern and southern landslide depressions. Long-term dissection has thus been enhanced along the geological discontinuities of the eruptive system. Deep erosion was first constrained along the axis of the main E–W rift zone, where numerous dykes compartmentalize the volcanic structure into large unstable blocks. Dykes most probably acted as mechanical discontinuities along which shallow gravitational landslides recurrently occurred. Such mass-wasting episodes produced significant amounts of debris, partly preserved as highly indurated sedimentary breccias of various ages exposed at various locations. Subsequent dissection of Tahiti-Nui was enhanced to the north and to the south, leading to the rapid evolution of the Papenoo and Taharuu drainage systems over the last 500 kyr. Long-term dissection on Tahiti-Nui has been responsible for the removal of at least 350 km3 of volcanic material from the surface, and for the partial exhumation of a shallow intrusive complex partly composed of coarse-grained plutonic rocks (gabbros and syenites) in the central part of the eruptive system. Structurally controlled erosion is thus a key component of landscape evolution on such high-relief oceanic tropical islands.  相似文献   

20.
Our understanding of continental rifting is, in large parts, derived from the stratigraphic record. This record is, however, incomplete as it does not often capture the geomorphic and erosional signal of rifting. New 3D seismic reflection data reveal a Late Permian-Early Triassic landscape incised into the pre-rift basement of the northern North Sea. This landscape, which covers at least 542 km2, preserves a drainage system bound by two major tectonic faults. A quantitative geomorphic analysis of the drainage system reveals 68 catchments, with channel steepness and knickpoint analysis of catchment-hosted palaeo-rivers showing that the landscape preserved a >2 Myr long period of transient tectonics. We interpret that this landscape records a punctuated uplift of the footwall of a major rift-related normal fault (Vette Fault) at the onset of rifting. The landscape was preserved by a combination of relatively rapid subsidence in the hangingwall of a younger fault (Øygarden Fault) and burial by post-incision sediments. As such, we show how and why erosional landscapes are preserved in the stratigraphic record, and how they can help us understand the tectono-stratigraphic evolution of ancient continental rifts.  相似文献   

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