Lithology and the evolution of bedrock rivers in post-orogenic settings: constraints from the high-elevation passive continental margin of SE Australia

Abstract

AbstractUnderstanding the role of lithological variation in the evolution of topography remains a fundamental issue, especially in the neglected post-orogenic terrains. Such settings represent the major part of the Earth's surface and recent modelling suggests that a range of interactions can account for the presence of residual topography for hundreds of millions of years, thereby explaining the great antiquity of landscapes in such settings. Field data from the inland flank of the SE Australian high-elevation continental margin suggest that resistant lithologies act to retard or even preclude the headward transmission of base-level fall driven by the isostatic response to regional denudation. Rejuvenation, be it episodic or continuous, is ‘caught up’ on these resistant lithologies, meaning in effect that the bedrock channels and hillslopes upstream of these ‘stalled’ knickpoints have become detached from the base-level changes downstream of the knickpoints. Until these knickpoints are breached, therefore, catchment relief must increase over time, a landscape evolution scenario that has been most notably suggested by Crickmay and Twidale. The role of resistant lithologies indicates that detachment-limited conditions are a key to the longevity of some post-orogenic landscapes, whereas the general importance of transport-limited conditions in the evolution of post-orogenic landscapes remains to be evaluated in field settings. Non-steady-state landscapes may lie at the heart of widespread, slowly evolving post-orogenic settings, such as high-elevation passive continental margins, meaning that non-steady-state landscapes, with increasing relief through time, are the ‘rule’ rather than the exception.