Imperial College London
Portrait Picture

Dr Alex Whittaker

Faculty of Engineering, Department of Earth Science & Engineering

Reader in Landscape Dynamics
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 7491a.whittaker Website

 
 
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Location

 

3.51Royal School of MinesSouth Kensington Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{QuyeSawyer:2021:10.1029/2020tc006076,
author = {QuyeSawyer, J and Whittaker, AC and Roberts, GG and Rood, DH},
doi = {10.1029/2020tc006076},
journal = {Tectonics},
pages = {1--26},
title = {Fault throw and regional uplift histories from drainage analysis: evolution of southern Italy},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2020tc006076},
volume = {40},
year = {2021}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Landscapes can record elevation changes caused by multiple tectonic processes. Here, we show how coeval histories of spatially coincident normal faulting and regional uplift can be deconvolved from river networks. We focus on Calabria, a tectonically active region incised by rivers containing knickpoints and knickzones. Marine fauna indicate that Calabria has been uplifted by >1 km since ∼0.8–1.2 Ma, which we used to calibrate parameters in a stream power erosional model. To deconvolve the local and regional uplift contributions to topography, we performed a spatiotemporal inversion of 994 fluvial longitudinal profiles. Uplift rates from fluvial inversion replicate the spatial trend of rates derived from dated Mid-Late Pleistocene marine terraces, and the magnitude of predicted uplift rates matches the majority of marine terrace uplift rates. We used the predicted uplift history to analyze long-term fault throw, and combined throw estimates with ratios of footwall uplift to hanging wall subsidence to isolate the nonfault related contribution to uplift. Increases in fault throw rate—which may suggest fault linkage and growth—have been identified on two major faults from fluvial inverse modeling, and total fault throw is consistent with independent estimates. The temporal evolution of nonfault related regional uplift is similar at three locations. Our results may be consistent with toroidal mantle flow generating uplift, perhaps if faulting reduces the strength of the overriding plate. In conclusion, fluvial inverse modeling can be an effective technique to quantify fault array evolution and can deconvolve different sources of uplift that are superimposed in space and time.
AU  - QuyeSawyer,J
AU  - Whittaker,AC
AU  - Roberts,GG
AU  - Rood,DH
DO  - 10.1029/2020tc006076
EP  - 26
PY  - 2021///
SN  - 0278-7407
SP  - 1
TI  - Fault throw and regional uplift histories from drainage analysis: evolution of southern Italy
T2  - Tectonics
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2020tc006076
UR  - https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2020TC006076
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/88859
VL  - 40
ER  -
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