In bedrock landscapes, the interactions between substrate, process and form can give rise to a wide range of complex morphological behaviors. These interactions are often highly non-linear, making it a challenge to unpack the substrate dependence of topography and erosion in such landscapes.This problem can be tackled in numerous ways. One approach involves quantifying the lengthscale(s) at which substrate properties and topography are correlated. This information can then be used to learn more about the nature of the physical processes acting on bedrock landscapes, and to improve the ways in which we parameterize them. We have developed a new application of wavelet analysis that allows such correlations to be determined for 2D curvilinear landscape features. We are currently using this method to explore the substrate dependence of physical processes acting on rock coasts at a broad range of scales, from meters to kilometers, with particular focus on the role of discontinuities. However, this method is generalizable to any planar curve constructed from pairs of coordinates.

Project Investigator: Sam Wilson-Fletcher

Collaborators: Niels Hovius , Jean Braun , Benoit Bovy (GFZ), Eric Deal (MIT)