Continental hypsography

Harrison, C. G. A.; Miskell, K. J.; Brass, Garrett W.; Saltzman, E. S.; Sloan, James L.

doi:10.1029/tc002i004p00357

Cited by 90 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Slope analyses for the earth have been carried out by Moore and Mark (1986) and will be briefly discussed later. Harrison et al (1983). + From Hay and Southam (1977).…”

Section: Mechanical Loadmentioning

confidence: 96%

Rates of continental erosion and mountain building

Harrison¹

1994

Active Continental Margins — Present and Past

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The first objective of this work was to obtain values for the rates at which continental erosion can smooth out or remove the topographic expression produced by orogeny. The dominant part is played by mechanical erosion, which acts most strongly in regions of large topographie expression. Chemical erosion depends strongly on precipitation or run off in individual river drainage basins, but because most continents have very similar average rainfall, chemical erosion is fairly uniform for continental sized areas, and will succeed in planing down all continents to a level peneplain if given enough time. The exception to this rule is Australia, which has a very low chemical erosion rate because of its dryness. The time constants for mechanical and chemical erosion so obtained vary between ab out 30 and 300 My depending on the continent and the assumptions made. Mountain building occurs throughout the geological time-scale, but at a non-uniform rate. Although there will not be a balance between erosion and mountain building over a short time-scale, due to the non-uniform rate of mountain building, the long-term situation must be that the two phenomena should balance out. It is shown that the freeboard of continents will respond to the long-term balance between mountain building and erosion. An expression has been derived for the average continental elevation in which the rate of mountain building depends on the rate of radiogenic he at production within the earth. It is shown that relatively small changes in average elevation above sea level of a few hund red metres are predicted to have occurred since the beginning of the Proterozoic. As mountain building is predicted to decrease on average with time, because of the reduction in internal heat generation, and as erosion is dependent on the average elevation, this average elevation will decrease slowly through time, the opposite of what some workers have predicted. A more complicated model of mountain building is then investigated, in which one component of

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“…Slope analyses for the earth have been carried out by Moore and Mark (1986) and will be briefly discussed later. Harrison et al (1983). + From Hay and Southam (1977).…”

Section: Mechanical Loadmentioning

confidence: 96%

Rates of continental erosion and mountain building

Harrison¹

1994

Active Continental Margins — Present and Past

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“…This surface elevation distribution is commonly used (e.g. Harrison et al, 1983;Rosenblatt and Pinet, 1994) for topographic comparisons because it gives three-dimensional information for a two-dimensional approach. The integral of this curve with respect to relative height provides a simple morphological index of the elevation distribution within the area considered (Ohmori, 1993).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of drainage area on hypsometry from an analysis of small-scale drainage basins in the Siwalik Hills (Central Nepal)

Hurtrez

Sol

Lucazeau

1999

Earth Surf. Process. Landforms

189

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Hypsometry of drainage basins (area±elevation analysis) has generally been used to infer the stage of geomorphic development and to study the influence of varying forcing factors (i.e. tectonics, climate, lithology) on topography. However, the scale dependence of hypsometry has generally been neglected. In order to assess the scale dependence of hypsometry, this study focuses on the sensitivity of hypsometry to different Digital Elevation Model (DEM) resolutions and on the influence of drainage area. Hypsometry inferred from different DEMs is shown to be robust against variations of their resolution. However, hypsometry appears to be dependent on drainage area. We propose that this scale dependence may reflect the varying importance of river and hillslope processes with basin area.

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“…Consequently, hypsometric analysis is essential tool to assess the impact of lithology, tectonics and climate on landform change, and to evaluate the interaction between tectonic uplift and erosion over an area or watershed. The hypsometric curve represents the volume of rock mass in the watershed against the remaining mass [65] [66] [67], whereas, the hypsometric integral is calculated from the area under a hypsometric curve and expressed as a percentage, where its value varies from 0 to 1 [68]. The hypsometric curves of W. Wala and the 10 sub-watersheds selected for the purpose of further analysis are convex upward, which is indicative of the youth-age stage of geomorphic development.…”

Section: Hypsometric Integral (Hi)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Morphometric Assessment of Wadi Wala Watershed, Southern Jordan Using ASTER (DEM) and GIS

Farhan¹

2017

JGIS

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Morphometric analysis is of vital concern to understand hydromophological processes in a given watershed, and thus, it is a priority for assessing water resources in drainage basins. A morphometric analysis was conducted to identify the drainage properties of Wadi Wala and the 23 fourth-order subbasins. ASTER DEM data was employed to compile slope, elevation, and aspect maps. Arc GIS software was used to measure and calculate basic, derived and shape morphometric parameters. W. Wala is found to be a sixth-order drainage basin, and the drainage pattern is trellis to sub-trellis in the central and lower part of the catchment, whereas it is dendritic to sub-dendritic pattern in the southern and northern parts. The slopes of the catchment vary from 0˚ -5˚ to >35˚ in slope categories. Tectonic uplifting and tilting, lithology, structure and rejuvenation are the major factors controlling morphological variation over the watershed. The recognized fault systems are chiefly controlling the drainage pattern, and the elongated shape of the sub-basins is attributed to dense lineaments in the central and eastern parts of the watershed. The R b values for the entire catchment and the sub-catchments range from 2 to 7, with a mean of 4.55, which indicates the distortion of drainage pattern by geological structure. Hypsometric integral values are high for the W. Wala watershed and the sub-basins, where it ranges from 70% to 89%. High HI values indicate that drainage basins are at the youth-age stage of geomorphic development, and they are affected by tectonic uplifting, tilting, and the dominance of hillslope process. Variation in HI values is apparent between sub-basins located at the western part, or, the rejuvenated belt where HI values range from 85% to 89%. Whereas the HI values of the sub-basins located at the eastern part of the watershed, vary from 70% to 84%. Regression analysis reveals that R 2 values, which represent the degree of control of driving pa- Y. Farhan respectively (where the F-value is significant at 0.1% and 0.5% levels). Such results imply that the height of local base level (m), and the mean height (m) are the only morphometric driving parameters which have significant control on HI values in the W. Wala watershed. High annual soil loss and sediment load estimated recently, denote that the catchment is highly susceptible to surface erosion at present. Hence, the present study, and the resultant information would help to plan for efficient soil and water conservation measures to reduce soil erosion rates, conserve water, and to control sediment into W. Wala dam.

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Continental hypsography

Cited by 90 publications

References 19 publications

Rates of continental erosion and mountain building

Rates of continental erosion and mountain building

Effect of drainage area on hypsometry from an analysis of small-scale drainage basins in the Siwalik Hills (Central Nepal)

Morphometric Assessment of Wadi Wala Watershed, Southern Jordan Using ASTER (DEM) and GIS

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