Erosion and Landscape Evolution

How Do We Know Rivers Cut

Their Valleys?
John Playfair, 1800
• Tributary valleys almost always join the
main valley at exactly the same elevation,
even though the valleys may begin many
miles apart. This is very unlikely unless the
rivers have cut the valleys.
• How Rivers Widen Valleys
 Constructive and Destructive
Processes
Highlands
• Erosion Dominates
• Destructive Processes
• History not Preserved
• Little Geological Record
Transport
Lowlands, Coastal Plain, Lakes and Seas
• Deposition Dominates
• Constructive Processes
• History Preserved
• Good Geological Record
Anatomy
of a
Drainage
System
Stream Order
 Cycle of erosion
Its also called geomorphic cycle, geographic cycle, or cycle of
erosion.
It’s a theory of the evolution of landforms, set by William M.
Davis 1880
Landforms were assumed to change through time from “youth” to
“maturity” to “old age,” each stage having specific characteristics.
The initial, or youthful, stage of landform development began with
uplift that produced fold or block mountains.
William Morris Davis

• Davis' Cycle of erosion

An example from an arid climate.

Davis' idea of a peneplain

 Cycle of erosion
Upon dissection by streams, the area would reach maturity and,
later, would be reduced to an old-age surface called a peneplain,
with an elevation near sea level.
The cycle could be interrupted by uplift during any period of the
life cycle and thus returned to the youthful stage; this return is
called rejuvenation.
The geomorphic cycle could be applied to all landforms such as
hillslopes, valleys, mountains, and river drainage systems.
 Ideal Stream Cycle (Davis)
Not a Literal Time Sequence, has 4 stages
• Youth
• Maturity
• Old Age
• Rejuvenation  
Youth • V-Shaped Valley

• Rapids & Waterfalls

• No Flood Plain

• Drainage Divides Broad

and Flat, Undissected by
Erosion
• Valley are Deep
 • V-Shaped Valley
Maturity (Early)
• Beginnings of Flood
Plain
• Sand and Gravel Bars

• Sharp Divides

• Relief Reaches
Maximum
• Valleys stop deepening
 • Valley has flat bottom
Maturity (Late) • Narrow Flood Plain

• Divides begin to round off

• Relief diminishes

• Sediment builds up, flood

plain widens
• River begins to meander
 • Land worn to nearly flat
Old Age
surface (peneplain)
• Resistant rocks remain as
erosional remnants
(monadnocks)
• Rivers meander across
extremely wide, flat flood
plains
 Rejuvenation
• Some change causes stream to speed up and cut deeper.

– Uplift of Land

– Lowering of Sea Level

– Greater stream flow

• Stream valley takes on youthful characteristics but retains

features of older stages as well.
• Can happen at any point in the cycle.
Rejuvenation of an old-age
landscape
Rejuvenation of an early mature
landscape
 Why the Stream Cycle Doesn't Explain
Everything
• Rises and falls in sea level during the ice ages rejuvenated most
landscapes to some extent.
• Climate changes mean that mass-wasting processes in temperate
regions may have undergone radical changes repeatedly in the
last few million years.
• In places where conditions have remained uniform for long
times, like the stable interiors of Africa, Australia and South
America, the ideal stream cycle seems to work best.
 Superposed (Antecedent) Drainage
Streams Cut Right Through High Topography
 Arid and Humid Weathering Compared
Humid Climates Arid Climates

Rainfall Frequent Rare, May Be Seasonal,

Often Violent
Soil Cover Thick Thin or Absent

Vegetation Thick Sparse-no Continuous

Cover
Chemical Intense Weak
Weathering
Overall Mostly Uniform Episodic Processes
Landscape Processes
Evolution
Arid Erosion • V-shaped Valleys

Cycle: Youth • Divides Flat,

Undissected
• Much Like Youth in
Humid Climates
 Arid Erosion • Slopes Stay Steep,
Cycle: Maturity Retreat
• Alluvial Fans
• Playa Lakes
• Pediments
 • Inselbergs
Arid Erosion Cycle:
• Playa Lakes
Old Age
• Pediplain
Closed
Basins
are
Typical
of Arid
Regions
 Why Davis theory doesn't explain
everything
• The processes of erosion play a part in landform determination,
BUT he emphasized that time was the primary factor.
• It is now believed that time is no more important in landform
development than the other factors.
• The cycle-of-erosion theory has long been accepted in the face of
accumulating quantitative data that refutes it.
 Why Davis theory doesn't explain
everything
• It is generally held now that the initial conditions—or uplift—in
a region do not necessarily predetermine the end products.
• Rather, there tends to be an eventual attainment of dynamic
equilibrium between landforms and the processes that act upon
them.
• When this happens, the physiographic history of a region is
“erased.”

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