HR: 11:05h
AN: H52E-04    [Abstracts]
TI: Relict Landscape Response to Knickpoint Migration on the Roan Plateau, Western Colorado, Explored Through ALSM Data Analysis
AU: * Berlin, M M
EM: maureen.berlin@colorado.edu
AF: INSTAAR and Dept. of Geological Sciences, 1560 30th Street, Boulder, CO 80303, United States
AU: Anderson, R S
EM: robert.s.anderson@colorado.edu
AF: INSTAAR and Dept. of Geological Sciences, 1560 30th Street, Boulder, CO 80303, United States
AB: The unprecedented spatial resolution of Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) derived from Airborne Laser Swath Mapping (ALSM) makes them ideal for detecting subtle morphologic features. We explore to what extent information about knickpoint migration is communicated upstream by analyzing an ASLM-derived DEM in a transient landscape. We target the Roan Plateau in western Colorado, a landscape developed in flat-lying Eocene shales, in which multiple upstream-migrating waterfalls triggered by base level fall have incised dramatic canyons in their wake. The waterfalls separate low-gradient, bedrock-floored reaches above the waterfalls from steep, boulder-choked canyons below. Similarly, a sheer canyon rim separates a smooth, relict landscape above the canyon walls from the steep cliffs and talus-mantled slopes below. Waterfall and canyon rim elevations correlate well with the outcrop of a resistant oil-shale layer. We use a 1-meter DEM to develop two simple metrics that detect channel and hillslope response of the upper landscape to knickpoint migration. The first metric is stream profile analysis of upper plateau tributaries. In a steady-state stream channel, slope should decrease with distance downstream, as drainage area and the associated water discharge increase. Departures from this trend can be attributed to either lithologic variation, or transient oversteepening that may be associated with the presence of the waterfall. Oversteepening of the channel can incite hillslope response, and give rise to a box canyon upstream of the waterfall. We document the slope of channels as they approach the free overfall, and the presence and lengths of box canyons upstream of the waterfall lip. The second metric is the curvature of plateau hilltops. In a steady state landscape, hilltops should be roughly parabolic in cross-section, reflecting a balance between a uniform rate of regolith production and diffusive transport at all points along the hillslope. Departure from this parabolic form can reflect lithologic variation, transient hillslope response to increased rates of stream incision, or transport processes that are not linearly dependent on slope. Isolation of roughly the upper 100 m of hilltops and evaluation of the curvature of these crests provides constraint on the ratio of weathering rate to transport efficiency in the landscape most likely to be in steady state. Changes in crest curvature with distance from the canyon rim can be used to document transient hillslope response of the upper plateau surface in areas with uniform lithology. Paired with field observations and mapped bedrock contacts, analysis of an ASLM-derived DEM allows us to evaluate the extent to which the upper plateau channels and hillslopes have responded to knickpoint migration and the carving of canyons downstream. Morphologic evidence for significant upper plateau response to this incision event would suggest that the timescale for landscape adjustment to base level fall may be shorter than that required to propagate a knickpoint upstream.
DE: 1819 Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
DE: 1825 Geomorphology: fluvial (1625)
DE: 1826 Geomorphology: hillslope (1625)
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting