Recent advances and current problems in modelling surface processes and their interaction with crustal deformation

Abstract

AbstractI present a brief summary of recent advances in the field of computational geomorphology and various attempts to couple numerical models of landscape evolution to models of crustal/lithospheric deformation. The most commonly used formulations for the various physical processes at play during surface erosion, transport and deposition are presented, as well as an outline of how they have been incorporated in a variety of numerical schemes. I also explain how the coupling between erosion and tectonics has been performed under various simplifying assumptions. Determining the rate constants for each of the proposed landforming mechanisms remains a difficult challenge that has recently been helped by the advent of new low temperature thermochronometers and exposure dating by cosmogenic radionuclides. I demonstrate how the information contained in the relationship between age and elevation can be used to provide constraints on the ‘age’ of a landscape, as well as how important rate information can be extracted from various datasets by using simple modelling techniques. This paper demonstrates why the field of computational geomorphology needs to harmonize the various parameterizations (often the legacy of empirical relationships derived from observations at the human scale), quantitative estimates of the value of the numerous rate parameters and improvement of the numerical techniques.