[1] Erosion rates dictate the morphology of landscapes, and therefore quantifying them is a critical part of many geomorphic studies. Methods to directly measure erosion rates are expensive and time consuming, whereas topographic analysis facilitates prediction of erosion rates rapidly and over large spatial extents. If hillslope sediment flux is nonlinearly dependent on slope then the curvature of hilltops will be linearly proportional to erosion rates. In this contribution we develop new techniques to extract hilltop networks and sample their adjacent hillslopes in order to test the utility of hilltop curvature for estimating erosion rates using high-resolution (1 m) digital elevation data. Published and new cosmogenic radionuclide analyses in the Feather River basin, California, suggest that erosion rates vary by over an order of magnitude (10 to 250 mm kyr À1 ). Hilltop curvature increases with erosion rates, allowing calibration of the hillslope sediment transport coefficient, which controls the relationship between gradient and sediment flux. Having constraints on sediment transport efficiency allows estimation of erosion rates throughout the landscape by mapping the spatial distribution of hilltop curvature. Additionally, we show that hilltop curvature continues to increase with rising erosion rates after gradient-limited hillslopes have emerged. Hence hilltop curvature can potentially reflect higher erosion rates than can be predicted by hillslope gradient, providing soil production on hilltops can keep pace with erosion. Finally, hilltop curvature can be used to estimate erosion rates in landscapes undergoing a transient adjustment to changing boundary conditions if the response timescale of hillslopes is short relative to channels.

[1] Many geomorphic studies assume that bedrock geology is not a first-order control on landscape form in order to isolate drivers of geomorphic change (e.g., climate or tectonics). Yet underlying geology may influence the efficacy of soil production and sediment transport on hillslopes. We performed quantitative analysis of LiDAR digital terrain models to examine the topographic form of hillslopes in two distinct lithologies in the Feather River catchment in northern California, a granodiorite pluton and metamorphosed volcanics. The two sites, separated by <2 km and spanning similar elevations, were assumed to have similar climatic histories and are experiencing a transience in landscape evolution characterized by a propagating incision wave in response to accelerated surface uplift c. 5 Ma. Responding to increased incision rates, hillslopes in granodiorite tend to have morphology similar to model predictions for steady state hillslopes, suggesting that they adjust rapidly to keep pace with the incision wave. By contrast, hillslopes in metavolcanics exhibit high gradients but lower hilltop curvature indicative of ongoing transient adjustment to incision. We used existing erosion rate data and the curvature of hilltops proximal to the main channels (where hillslopes have most likely adjusted to accelerated erosion rates) to demonstrate that the sediment transport coefficient is higher in granodiorite (8.8 m 2 ka À1 ) than in metavolcanics (4.8 m 2 ka À1 ). Hillslopes in both lithologies get shorter (i.e., drainage density increases) with increasing erosion rates.

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It has been observed that the distance between the outlets of transverse basins in orogens is typically half of the distance between the main divide and the range front irrespective of mountain range size or erosional controls. Although it has been suggested that this relationship is the inherent expression of Hack's law, and/or possibly a function of range widening, there are cases of notable deviations from the typical half-width average spacing. Moreover, it has not been demonstrated that this general relationship is also true for basins in morphologically similar nonorogenic settings, or for those that do not extend to the main drainage divide.These issues are explored by investigating the relationship between basin outlet spacing and the 2-dimensional geometric properties of drainage basins (basin length, main valley length and basin area) in order to assess whether the basin outlet spacing-range width ratio is a universal characteristic of £uvial systems.We examined basins spanning two orders of magnitude in area along the southern £ank of the Himalayas and the coastal zone of southeast Africa. We found that the spacing between basin outlets (L os ) for major transverse basins that drain the main divide (range-scale basins) is approximately half of the basin length (L b ) for all basins, irrespective of size, in southeast Africa. In the Himalayas, while this ratio was observed for eastern Himalayan basins (a region where the maximum elevations coincided with the main drainage divide), it was only observed in basins shorter than $30 km in the western and central Himalayas. Our analysis indicates that basin outlet spacing is consistent with Hack's law, apparently because the increase in basin width (represented by outlet spacing) with basin area occurs at a rate similar to the increase in main stream length (L v ) with basin area. It is suggested that most river systems tend towards an approximately diamond-shaped packing arrangement, and this applies both to the nonorogenic setting of southeast Africa as well as most orogenic settings. However, in the western Himalayas shortening associated with localised rock uplift appears to have occurred at length scales smaller than most the basins examined. As a result rivers in basins longer than $30 km have been unable to erode in a direction normal to the range front at a su⁄ciently high rate to sustain this form and have been forced into an alternative, and possibly unstable, packing arrangement.