River history and tectonics

• Published in: Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A: Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences Vol. 370; no. 1966; pp. 2173 - 2192
• Main Author: Vita-Finzi, C.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England The Royal Society Publishing 13.05.2012; The Royal Society
• Subjects: Drainage patterns; Earthquakes; Fluvial channels; Fluvial erosion; Fluvial Processes; Freshwater; Geochronology; Geologic deformation; Isostasy; Plate tectonics; Rivers; Subsidence; Tectonics; Valleys; Australia; ASW, USA, Louisiana, Mississippi Delta
• ISSN: 1364-503X; 1471-2962
• DOI: 10.1098/rsta.2011.0605

The analysis of crustal deformation by tectonic processes has gained much from the clues offered by drainage geometry and river behaviour, while the interpretation of channel patterns and sequences benefits from information on Earth movements before or during their development. The interplay between the two strands operates at many scales: themes which have already benefited from it include the possible role of mantle plumes in the breakup of Gondwana, the Cenozoic development of drainage systems in Africa and Australia, Himalayan uplift in response to erosion, alternating episodes of uplift and subsidence in the Mississippi delta, buckling of the Indian lithospheric plate, and changes in stream pattern and sinuosity along individual alluvial channels subject to localized deformation. Developments in remote sensing, isotopic dating and numerical modelling are starting to yield quantitative analyses of such effects, to the benefit of geodymamics as well as fluvial hydrology.