Struggles with stream power: Connecting theory across scales

Venditti, Jeremy G.; Li, Tingan; Deal, Eric; Dingle, Elizabeth; Church, Michael

doi:10.1016/j.geomorph.2019.07.004

Cited by 28 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 92 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Longitudinal river profiles provide proxies for changing environmental conditions because their geometry reflects variable rates of surface uplift and changes in base-level (Wobus et al, 2006), river discharge (Lague, 2014) and sediment supply (Jansen et al, 2011). The analysis of river profiles commonly relies on the stream-power law, which states that the elevation change / [m y -1 ] of a detachment-limited fluvial channel is a function of uplift [m y -1 ], erosional efficiency [m 1-2m y -1 ], drainage area [m 2 ] and local channel gradient ( / ) to the exponents and , respectively (e.g., Howard and Kerby, 1983;Fox et al, 2014;Lague, 2014;Venditti et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Divide mobility controls knickpoint migration on the Roan Plateau (Colorado, USA)

Schwanghart

Scherler

2020

Geology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Knickpoints in longitudinal river profiles are proxies for the climatic and tectonic history of active mountains. The analysis of river profiles commonly relies on the assumption that drainage network configurations are stable. Here, we show that this assumption must be made cautiously if changes in contributing area are fast relative to knickpoint migration rates. We studied the Parachute Creek basin in the Roan Plateau, Colorado, United States, where knickpoint retreat occurs in horizontally uniform lithology so that drainage area is the sole governing variable. In this basin, we identified an anomalous catchment in the degree to which a stream power–based model predicted knickpoint locations. The catchment is experiencing area loss as the plateau edge is eroded by cliff migration in proximity to the Colorado River. Model predictions improve if the plateau edge is assumed to have migrated over the time scale of knickpoint retreat. Finally, a Lagrangian model of knickpoint migration enabled us to study the kinematic links between drainage area loss and knickpoint migration and offered constraints on the temporal aspects of area loss. Modeled onset and amount of area loss are consistent with cliff retreat rates along the margin of the Roan Plateau inferred from the incisional history of the upper Colorado River.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Divide mobility controls knickpoint migration on the Roan Plateau (Colorado, USA)

Schwanghart

Scherler

2020

Geology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The pattern of geological setting, which we reveal in Figures 2-7 and idealized on the scheme in Figure 8, can be adopted as an environmental framework by hydrotechnical engineers who aim to develop instream river training [73,74]. Such a design practice faces a problem of too high stream power [39,[75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82][83][84][85] in the channel which leads to erosion. There are few concepts of energy dissipation of the stream.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rivers Try Harder. Reversed “Differential Erosion” as Geological Control of Flood in the Large Fluvial Systems in Poland

Bihałowicz

Wierzbicki

2021

Water

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We study cross-sections on the Detailed Geological Map of Poland (SMGP) to find a geologic and geomorphic pattern under river valleys in Poland. The pattern was found in 20 reaches of the largest Polish rivers (Odra, Warta, Vistula, Narew, and Bug) located in the European Lowland, in the landscape of old (Pleistocene, Saalian) glacial high plains extending between the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) moraines on the North and the Upland on the South. The Upland was slightly folded and up-faulted during Alpine orogeny together with the thrust of Carpathian nappes and the uplift of Tatra Mts. and Sudetes. The found pattern is an alluvial river with broad Holocene floodplain and the channel developed atop the protrusion of bedrock (Jurassic, Cretaceous limestones, marlstones, sandstones) or non-alluvial, cohesive, overconsolidated sediments resistant to erosion (glacial tills, lacustrine or “ice-dammed lake” clays) of Cenozoic (Paleogene, Neogene, Quaternary—Elsterian). We regard the sub-alluvial protrusion as the limit of river incision and scour. It cannot be determined why the river flows atop these protrusions, in opposition to “differential erosion”, a geomorphology principle. We assume it is evidence of geological flood control. We propose an environmental and geomorphological framework for the hydrotechnical design of instream river training.

show abstract

“…The model presented here uses a sediment-flux-dependent bedrock incision models rooted in current mechanistic understanding of fluvial bedrock incision. As such, it connects reach-scale to landscape-scale approaches in modeling bedrock river dynamics, addressing what Venditti et al (2020) called a current grand challenge of geomorphology. The channel long profile predicted by the model yields a power-law dependence of channel bed slope on incision rate and drainage area similar to the one obtained from the stream-power incision model (SPIM) (Equation 26).…”

Section: Comparison To the Upscaled Stream-power Incision Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%