4.6 Article

Landscape response to normal fault linkage: Insights from numerical modeling

Journal

GEOMORPHOLOGY
Volume 388, Issue -, Pages -

Publisher

ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.geomorph.2021.107796

Keywords

Landscape evolution; Normal fault linkage; Numerical modeling; Divide migration; Langshan Mountains

Funding

  1. National Natural Science Foundation of China [41941016, 41502203, 41602210, 41602195]
  2. Zhejiang University Academic Award for Outstanding Doctoral Candidates [2018016]

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The study examined the impacts of normal fault linkage on landscape using landscape evolution models, revealing that topography dynamically responds to changes in uplift patterns accompanying fault linkage, resulting in a shift in erosion processes. The findings suggest significant changes in terrain features and increased erosion rates after fault linkage, indicating a high geohazard risk in the linkage zone.
Normal fault linkage has significant impacts on uplift patterns and erosional processes in extensional regions. However, geomorphic process-based constraints on landscape response to normal fault linkage are still scarce. Here, we use landscape evolution models to examine how a landscape responds to the linkage of two normal faults. The results demonstrate that topography dynamically responds to the changes in uplift patterns that accompany fault linkage. Specifically, our results indicate that after fault linkage, (1) the steepest topography and the highest erosion rate shift from the center of each fault segment to the linkage zone; and (2) the main drainage divide evolves from an M-shape to a bow-shape. We apply these findings to the Langshan Mountains in northern China, and suggest that the two piedmont fault segments have linked and that a high geohazard risk exists near the linkage zone, where the steep, transient topography is experiencing intense erosion. (C) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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