Geomorphology articles within Nature Geoscience

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  • News & Views |

    River systems have changed through time; the sinuous, stable channels common today developed relatively late in Earth's history. The rock record suggests that a specific type of fixed-channel river system arose after the expansion of arborescence.

    • Chris Paola

  • Article |

    The expansion of land plants led to the development of new river and floodplain morphologies. Field studies suggest that the expansion of tree habitats in the Carboniferous period caused the development of river systems dominated by multiple channels and stable alluvial islands.

    • Neil S. Davies
    •  & Martin R. Gibling

  • Article |

    Non-basaltic volcanism is rare on the Moon and has been found predominantly on the lunar nearside. Analysis of Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera images and spectral data reveal the presence of compositionally evolved, non-basaltic volcanism on the lunar farside.

    • Bradley L. Jolliff
    • , Sandra A. Wiseman
    •  & David A. Paige

  • Letter |

    During continental breakup, the onset of seafloor spreading is thought to be marked by the first occurrence of a magnetic anomaly. Analysis of seismic and magnetic data from the Iberia–Newfoundland continental-rift system suggests that the first magnetic anomaly observed here instead represents a magmatic event that pre-dates seafloor spreading.

    • Adrien Bronner
    • , Daniel Sauter
    •  & Marc Munschy

  • News & Views |

    Large earthquakes can build mountains, but they can also trigger landslides that wear landscapes away. An analysis from the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake shows that landslides destroyed more topography than was created by uplift.

    • William B. Ouimet

  • Letter |

    Evapotranspiration of soil moisture can affect rainfall and the development of convective storms. Satellite observations of cloud and land-surface temperatures over the Sahel suggest that convective storms are more likely to form over strong mesoscale gradients in soil moisture.

    • Christopher M. Taylor
    • , Amanda Gounou
    •  & Martin De Kauwe

  • Article |

    Erosion in the Washington Cascades Mountains was dominated by glacier activity until the end of the Last Glacial Maximum, when fluvial incision and mass wasting became the dominant drivers. An analysis of millennial-scale rates of denudation in the range suggest erosion is sensitive both to spatial variations in precipitation and inherited topography.

    • Seulgi Moon
    • , C. Page Chamberlain
    •  & George E. Hilley

  • Letter |

    Shallow earthquakes lead to the uplift of mountain ranges, but also trigger landslides that remove mass. An analysis of the 2008 Wenshuan earthquake suggests that more material was removed from the orogen by widespread landslides than was added by coseismic uplift.

    • Robert N. Parker
    • , Alexander L. Densmore
    •  & David N. Petley

  • Letter |

    The western margin of the Andes Mountains often experiences large earthquakes, but the potential size of earthquakes along the eastern margin is unknown. Analysis of GPS data shows that a substantial section of the eastern margin is locked and could rupture in an earthquake with a magnitude of up to 8.9.

    • Benjamin A. Brooks
    • , Michael Bevis
    •  & Robert J. Smalley Jr

  • Letter |

    The timing and style of magmatism and extension during the final stages of continental breakup are uncertain. Analysis of ongoing rifting processes in Ethiopia reveals that after a protracted period of extension by magma intrusion, late-stage breakup is characterized by a final phase of plate stretching and voluminous basalt extrusion.

    • Ian D. Bastow
    •  & Derek Keir

  • News & Views |

    The mechanisms that govern the growth of debris flows are largely unclear, hampering efforts to assess natural hazards in landslide-prone areas. Experiments suggest that high bed-water content increases flow velocity and mass entrainment in landslides.

    • Anne Mangeney

  • News & Views |

    The timing and origins of Alpine gorge formation are controversial. A high-resolution analysis of the inner gorges of the Swiss Alps suggests that these landforms were carved over successive interglacial periods, and survived the intervening glaciations.

    • Jean L. Dixon

  • Article |

    The mechanisms by which debris flows acquire mass and momentum as they entrain material are unclear. Large-scale experiments suggest that the pore pressure of wet bed sediment increases as the flow moves over the bed, leading to reduced friction and progressive scouring of the base.

    • Richard M. Iverson
    • , Mark E. Reid
    •  & Julia P. Griswold

  • Backstory |

    Pieter Vermeesch enjoyed training for a marathon in an empty two-dimensional space, with his eyes closed, in-between sampling aeolian dunes in the Namib Sand Sea.

  • Review Article |

    Earth's topography is attributed to the interactions of the tectonic plates, but flow within the mantle also contributes to surface uplift and subsidence. An overview of recent research indicates that mantle-induced dynamic topography can be reconstructed by integrating the geological record with models of mantle flow.

    • Jean Braun

  • News & Views |

    Magma from the mantle meets the ocean at seafloor spreading centres. At young rifts, basalt sills may heat overlying sediments and induce natural carbon release; basalt flows elsewhere may offer secure reservoirs for sequestration of anthropogenic carbon.

    • David Goldberg

  • Letter |

    River canyons are thought to be cut slowly over millions of years. However, at Lake Canyon Gorge, Texas, a seven-metre-deep canyon was cut in just three days in 2002, providing insight into the erosion processes operating during megaflood events.

    • Michael P. Lamb
    •  & Mark A. Fonstad

  • Letter |

    The cause of the Laramide phase of mountain building remains uncertain. Modelling and plate reconstructions show that Laramide events coincide with subduction of the Shatsky oceanic plateau, implicating surface rebound after removal of the subducting plateau in Laramide uplift.

    • Lijun Liu
    • , Michael Gurnis
    •  & Jennifer M. Jackson

  • Letter |

    Landslide erosion is a primary control of landscape relief. A wide-ranging analysis of landslide geometry shows that soil-based landslides are generally less voluminous than landslides that involve the failure of bedrock, and provides refined metrics for estimating the volume of a landslide from the area of the failure

    • Isaac J. Larsen
    • , David R. Montgomery
    •  & Oliver Korup

  • Letter |

    The onset of fluvial erosion in an area of tectonic uplift is thought to reflect the timing of the uplift. Geomorphological data from the Yellow River in Tibet, indicate that the rapid incision of this river channel occurred as a result of climate change, at least six million years after the onset of plateau uplift.

    • William H. Craddock
    • , Eric Kirby
    •  & Jianhui Liu

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