Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Geomorphology
Criteria and Tools for Determining Drainage Divide Stability
Published: 2017-12-10
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geomorphology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Watersheds are the fundamental organizing units in landscapes and thus the controls on drainage divide location and mobility are an essential facet of landscape evolution. Additionally, many common topographic analyses fundamentally assume that river network topology and divide locations are largely static, allowing channel profile form to be interpreted in terms of spatio-temporal patterns of [...]
Neogene - Quaternary slow coastal uplift of Western Europe through the perspective of sequences of strandlines from the Cotentin Peninsula (Normandy, France)
Published: 2017-12-07
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geomorphology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The Cotentin Peninsula (Normandy, France) displays sequences of marine terraces and rasas, the latter being wide Late Cenozoic coastal erosion surfaces, that are typical of Western European coasts in Portugal, Spain, France and southern England. Remote sensing imagery and field mapping enabled reappraisal of the Cotentin coastal sequences. From bottom to top, the N Cotentin sequence includes four [...]
Lithospheric flexure and rheology determined by climate cycle markers in the Corinth Rift
Published: 2017-11-29
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Geomorphology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Tectonics and Structure
Geomorphic strain markers accumulating the effects of many earthquake cycles help to constrain the mechanical behaviour of continental rift systems as well as the related seismic hazards. In the Corinth Rift (Greece), the unique record of onshore and offshore markers of Pleistocene ~100-ka climate cycles provides an outstanding possibility to constrain rift mechanics over a range of timescales. [...]
The role of coseismic Coulomb stress changes in shaping the hard-link between normal fault segments
Published: 2017-11-27
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Geomorphology, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Tectonics and Structure
The mechanism and evolution of fault linkage is important in the growth and development of large faults. Here we investigate the role of coseismic stress changes in shaping the hard-links between parallel normal fault segments (or faults), by comparing numerical models of the Coulomb stress change from simulated earthquakes on two en echelon fault segments to natural observations of hard-linked [...]
Temperatures recorded by cosmogenic noble gases since the last glacial maximum in the Maritime Alps
Published: 2017-11-24
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Geomorphology, Glaciology, Other Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
While proxy records have been used to reconstruct late Quaternary climate parameters throughout the European Alps, our knowledge of deglacial climate conditions in the Maritime Alps is limited. Here, we report temperatures recorded by a new and independent geochemical technique—cosmogenic noble gas paleothermometry—in the Maritime Alps since the last glacial maximum. We measured cosmogenic 3He in [...]
High curvatures drive river meandering
Published: 2017-11-21
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Geomorphology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
One of the long- and widely held ideas about the dynamics of meandering rivers is that migration slows down in bends with higher curvatures. Identifying the radius of curvature at which migration is fastest is standard practice in field studies of meandering rivers. High-resolution measurements of local migration rates in time-lapse Landsat images from two rapidly migrating rivers in the Amazon [...]
Global Sensitivity Analysis of Parameter Uncertainty in Landscape Evolution Models
Published: 2017-11-09
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geomorphology, Hydrology, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Landscape Evolution Models have a long history of use as exploratory models, providing greater understanding of the role large scale processes have on the long-term development of the Earth’s surface. As computational power has advanced so has the development and sophistication of these models. This has seen them applied at increasingly smaller scale and shorter-term simulations at greater [...]
Environmental signal propagation in sedimentary systems across timescales
Published: 2017-11-08
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Geomorphology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology, Stratigraphy
Review of concepts of environmental signal (climate, tectonics, anthropogenic, etc.) propagation in sedimentary systems from source to sink.
Formation of a cohesive floodplain in a dynamic experimental meandering river
Published: 2017-11-03
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geomorphology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Field studies suggest that a cohesive floodplain is a necessary condition for meandering in contrast to braided rivers. However, it is only partly understood how the balance between floodplain construction by overbank deposition and removal by bank erosion and chutes leads to meandering. This is needed because only then does a dynamic equilibrium exist and channels maintain meandering with low [...]
Compositional Signatures in Acoustic Backscatter Over Vegetated and Unvegetated Mixed Sand-Gravel Riverbeds
Published: 2017-11-02
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Geomorphology, Hydraulic Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Statistical Models, Statistics and Probability
Multibeam acoustic backscatter has considerable utility for remote characterization of spatially heterogeneous bed sediment composition over vegetated and unvegetated riverbeds of mixed sand and gravel. However, the use of high-frequency, decimeter-resolution acoustic backscatter for sediment classification in shallow water is hampered by significant topographic contamination of the signal. In [...]
Location and probability of shoal margin collapses in a sandy estuary
Published: 2017-11-02
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geomorphology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Channel bank failure, collapses of shoal margins and beaches due to flow slides have been recorded in Dutch estuaries for the past 200 years but have hardly been recognized elsewhere. Current predictions lack forecasting capabilities, because they were validated and calibrated for historic data of cross-sections in specific systems, allowing local hindcast rather than location and probability [...]
Effects of spatial resolution on slope and aspect derivation for regional-scale analysis
Published: 2017-11-01
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geographic Information Sciences, Geography, Geomorphology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Remote Sensing, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Spatial Science
This paper investigates differences between morphometric parameters (slope and aspect) derived from a resampled DEM and resampled morphometric data derived from a medium resolution DEM, with examples for three study areas in South America selected to represent flatlands, hilly terrain, and mountain ranges. Using a low resolution DEM for regional scale morphometric analysis is not an optimal [...]
Geological applications of digital terrain analysis
Published: 2017-11-01
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Geographic Information Sciences, Geography, Geology, Geomorphology, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Remote Sensing, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Spatial Science, Tectonics and Structure, Volcanology
Editorial to the IJGIS Special Issue on "Geological applications of digital terrain analysis". In this volume, the modern advances in the field of geological terrain analysis are presented, while emphasis is given to the quantitative analysis of modern datasets.
A dimensionless statistical analysis of logjam form and process
Published: 2017-11-01
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Geomorphology, Hydrology, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology, Water Resource Management
Large wood in rivers and logjams are linked to the presence of varied riverine morphologies and increased abundance and diversity of aquatic biota. Current research into the ecohydrological, morphological and geochemical effects of logjams is restricted by difficulties in comparing findings between river systems. The problem is exacerbated by a lack of standardised metrics for recording and [...]
The Planform Mobility of River Channel Confluences: Insights from Analysis of Remotely Sensed Imagery
Published: 2017-11-01
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geomorphology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology
River channel confluences are widely acknowledged as important geomorphological nodes that control the downstream routing of water and sediment, and which are locations for the preservation of thick fluvial deposits overlying a basal scour. Despite their importance, there has been little study of the stratigraphic characteristics of river junctions, or the role of confluence morphodynamics in [...]