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An understanding of rates and mechanisms of incision and knickpoint retreat in bedrock rivers is fundamental to perceptions of landscape response to external drivers, yet only sparse field data are available. Here we present eye witness accounts and quantitative surveys of rapid, amphitheatre-headed gorge formation in unweathered granite from the overtopping of a rock-cut dam spillway by small-moderate floods (B100-1,500 m 3 s À 1 ). The amount of erosion demonstrates no relationship with flood magnitude or bedload availability. Instead, structural pattern of the bedrock through faults and joints appears to be the primary control on landscape change. These discontinuities facilitate rapid erosion (4270 m headward retreat; B100 m incision; and B160 m widening over 6 years) principally through fluvial plucking and block topple. The example demonstrates the potential for extremely rapid transient bedrock erosion even when rocks are mechanically strong and flood discharges are moderate. These observations are relevant to perceived models of gorge formation and knickpoint retreat.

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The Northwest and Central-West Iberian Peninsula configure an intraplate area far from the active plate boundaries, where the Variscan basement crops out extensively (Iberian Massif). This area of the Iberian Peninsula has been traditionally considered a seismically stable region; however, it presents a moderate intraplate seismicity which indicates the presence of active structures and the occurrence of potentially damaging earthquakes. The scarcity of Mesozoic and Cenozoic deposits makes very difficult to track the record of the more recent tectonic activity and the characterization of active tectonic structures within the Iberian Massif. Nevertheless the seismic sequences of 1995-1997 in Lugo (5.1 mb; IV) and 2003 in Zamora (4.2 Mw) provided important information about the orientation of the present stress tensor, and the distribution of the hypocenters informed about the rupture geometry of the fault planes. The present work integrates geological, geomorphological, structural, and seismological data in order to define the main potentially active faults in the region. Faults trending NE-SW to N-S are potentially active as strike-slip, in some cases with a reverse component, under a NW-SE to N-S compression.

Formerly closed drainage basins provide exceptional settings for quantifying fluvial incision and landscape dissection at different time scales. Endorheic basins trap all the sediment eroded within the watershed, which allows estimates of post–basin opening erosion patterns. The Duero Basin was a former closed basin and is presently drained by the Duero River into the Atlantic Ocean. During the Cenozoic, the basin experienced a long endorheic period, marked by the formation of continental carbonates and evaporites. The retrogressive erosion of the Atlantic drainage coming from the Portuguese coast subsequently captured the internal drainage, and significant fluvial dissection occurred. Presently, the basin contains a relatively well-preserved sedimentary fill. Gridding and surface fitting in this paper provide the first attempt to reconstruct the surface of the top of the former endorheic sedimentary sequence to quantify the erosional impact of the basin opening. At least 2251±524 km3 of sediment was removed from the formerly closed basin following the start of exorheism. This volume represents a mean basin-surface lowering of 65±13 m. Erosion estimates and landscape dissection patterns are consistent with geologic evidence of progressive establishment of an outward drainage system.