Avulsion is the natural process by which flow diverts out of an established river channel into a new permanent course on the adjacent floodplain. Avulsions are primarily features of aggrading floodplains. Their recurrence interval varies widely among the few modern rivers for which such data exist, ranging from as low as 28 years for the Kosi River (India) to up to 1400 years for the Mississippi. Avulsions cause loss of life, property damage, destabilization of shipping and irrigation channels, and even coastal erosion as sediment is temporarily sequestered on the floodplain. They are also the main process that builds alluvial stratigraphy. Their causes remain relatively unknown, but stability analyses of bifurcating channels suggest that thresholds in the relative energy slope and Shields parameter of the bifurcating channel system are key factors.

Abstract. Recent investigations have shown that the extent of the channel network in some drainage basins is controlled by a threshold for overland flow erosion. The sensitivity of such basins to climate change is analyzed using a physically based model of drainage basin evolution. The GOLEM model simulates basin evolution under the action of weathering processes, hillslope transport, and fluvial bedrock erosion and sediment transport. Results from perturbation analyses reveal that the nature and timescale of basin response depends on the direction of change. An increase in runoff intensity (or a decrease in vegetation cover) will lead to a rapid expansion of the channel network, with the resulting increase in sediment supply initially generating aggradation along the main network, followed by downcutting as the sediment supply tapers off. By contrast, a decrease in runoff intensity (or an increase in the erosion threshold) will lead to a retraction of the active channel network and a much more gradual geomorphic response. Cyclic changes in runoff intensity are shown to produce aggradational-degradational cycles that resemble those observed in the field. Cyclic variations in runoff also lead to highly punctuated denudation rates, with denudation concentrated during periods of increasing runoff intensity and/or decreasing vegetation cover. The sediment yield from thresholddominated basins may therefore exhibit significant variability in response to relatively subtle environmental changes, a finding which underscores the need for caution in interpreting modern sediment-yield data.

[1] In this paper, we use observational data and numerical modeling to present a new explanation for the formation of river-dominated delta networks. Observational data from deltas throughout the world show that distributary channel widths, depths, and lengths decrease nonlinearly with successive bifurcations. Trends in width and depth are an outcome of hydraulic geometry scaling. The trend in channel length is a consequence of delta growth. Analyses of serial maps show that the positions of bifurcations are the fossilized locations of river mouth bars (also called middle-ground and distributary mouth bar) in front of old delta channel mouths. Therefore the trend in channel length can be explained through the mechanics of river mouth bar formation and evolution. We use Delft3D, a coupled hydrodynamic and morphodynamic model, to simulate the process of river mouth bar formation within an expanding turbulent jet in front of distributary channel mouths. Our results describe in detail the formation and evolution of a river mouth bar system and demonstrate that the distance to the river mouth bar is proportional to jet momentum flux and inversely proportional to grain size. Therefore channel length decreases down delta because with each successive bifurcation, the jet momentum flux decreases. These results can be used to predict the future evolution of river-dominated deltas and can be used to aid in hydrocarbon exploration of these depositional environments.

Erosional escarpments are common features of high‐elevation rifted continents. Fission track data suggest that these escarpments form by base level lowering and/or marginal uplift during rifting, followed by lateral retreat of an erosion front across tens to hundreds of kilometers. Previous modeling studies have shown that this characteristic pattern of denudation can have a profound impact upon marginal isostatic uplift and the evolution of offshore sedimentary basins. Yet at present there is only a rudimentary understanding of the geomorphic mechanisms capable of driving such prolonged escarpment retreat. In this study we present a nonlinear, two‐dimensional landscape evolution model that is used to assess the necessary and sufficient conditions for long‐term retreat of a rift‐generated escarpment. The model represents topography as a grid of cells, with drainage networks evolving as water flows across the grid in the direction of steepest descent. The model accounts for sediment production by weathering, fluvial sediment transport, bedrock channel erosion, and hillslope sediment transport by diffusive mechanisms and by mass failure. Numerical experiments presented explore the effects of different combinations of erosion processes and of dynamic coupling between denudation and flexural isostatic uplift. Model results suggest that the necessary and sufficient conditions for long‐term escarpment retreat are (1) incising bedrock channels in which the erosion rate increases with increasing drainage area, so that the channels steepen and propagate headward; (2) a low rate of sediment production relative to sediment transport efficiency, which promotes relief‐generating processes over diffusive ones; (3) high continental elevation, which allows greater freedom for fluvial dissection; and (4) any process, including flexural isostatic uplift, that helps to maintain a drainage divide near an escarpment crest. Flexural isostatic uplift also facilitates escarpment retreat by elevating topography in the vicinity of an eroding escarpment, thereby increasing channel gradients and accelerating erosion which in turn generates additional isostatic uplift. Of all the above conditions, high continental elevation is common to most rift margin escarpments and may ultimately be the most important factor.

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We present a tectonic, surface process model used to investigate the role of horizontal shortening in convergent orogens and the effects on steady-state topography. The tectonic model consists of a specified velocity field for the Earth's surface and includes a constant uplift rate and a constant horizontal strain rate which varies to reflect the relative importance of frontal accretion and underplating in an orogenic wedge. The surface process model includes incision of a network of rivers formed by collection of applied precipitation and diffusive hillslope mass transfer. Three non-dimensional parameters describe this model: a ratio of the maximum horizontal velocity to the vertical velocity, a Peclet number expressing the efficiency of the hillslope diffusion relative to the uplift rate, and a fluvial "erosion number" reflecting the fluvial incision efficiency relative to the uplift rate. A series of models are presented demonstrating the resultant steady-state landforms parameterized by these three numbers. A finite velocity ratio results in an asymmetric form to the model mountain range, although the magnitude of the asymmetry also depends on the Peclet number. Topographic steady-state is achieved faster for models with no horizontal component to the velocity field. With finite horizontal velocity, topographic steady state is achieved only at the scale of the entire mountain range; even the first order drainage basins are unstable with time in the presence of horizontal shortening. We compare our model results to topographic profiles from active mountain ranges in Taiwan, New Zealand, and the Olympic Mountains of Washington state. All these examples exhibit asymmetric topographic form with the asymmetry consistent with the polarity of subduction, suggesting that horizontal tectonic motion is affecting the macro-geomorphic form of these ranges.

Measurements of fluvial bedrock incision were made with submillimeter precision in the East Central Range of Taiwan, where long-term exhumation rates and precipitation-driven river discharge are independently known. They indicate that valley lowering is driven by relatively frequent flows of moderate intensity, abrasion by suspended sediment is an important fluvial wear process, and channel bed geometry and the presence of widely spaced planes of weakness in the rock mass influence erosion rate and style.