Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 14 February 1992:
Vol. 255. no. 5046, pp. 826 - 830
DOI: 10.1126/science.255.5046.826
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

Channel Initiation and the Problem of Landscape Scale

DAVID R. MONTGOMERY 1 and WILLIAM E. DIETRICH 1

1 Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720

Since the 1940s it has been proposed that landscape dissection into distinct valleys is limited by a threshold of channelization that sets a finite scale to the landscape. This threshold is equal to the hillslope length that is just shorter than that necessary to support a channel head. A field study supports this hypothesis by showing that an empirically defined topographic threshold associated with channel head locations also defines the border between essentially smooth, undissected hillslopes and the valley bottoms to which they drain. This finding contradicts assertions that landscapes are scale-independent and suggests that landscape response to changes in climate or land use depends on the corresponding changes in the threshold of channelization.

Submitted on August 7, 1991
Accepted on November 25, 1991


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Feedbacks among climate, erosion, and tectonics in a critical wedge orogen.
G. H. Roe, K. X. Whipple, and J. K. Fletcher (2008)
Am J Sci 308, 815-842
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
How well can hillslope evolution models "explain" topography? Simulating soil transport and production with high-resolution topographic data.
J. J. Roering (2008)
Geological Society of America Bulletin 120, 1248-1262
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Headwater channel dynamics in semiarid rangelands, Colorado high plains, USA.
G. E. Tucker, L. Arnold, R. L. Bras, H. Flores, E. Istanbulluoglu, and P. Solyom (2006)
Geological Society of America Bulletin 118, 959-974
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Surface uplift and climate change: The geomorphic evolution of the Western Escarpment of the Andes of northern Chile between the Miocene and present.
F. Kober, F. Schlunegger, G. Zeilinger, and H. Schneider (2006)
Geological Society of America Special Papers 398, 75-86
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Response of a steady-state critical wedge orogen to changes in climate and tectonic forcing.
G. H. Roe, D. B. Stolar, and S. D. Willett (2006)
Geological Society of America Special Papers 398, 227-239
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Agricultural Practices Influence Flow Regimes of Headwater Streams in Western Iowa.
M. D. Tomer, D. W. Meek, and L. A. Kramer (2005)
J. Environ. Qual. 34, 1547-1558
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Field measurements of incision rates following bedrock exposure: Implications for process controls on the long profiles of valleys cut by rivers and debris flows.
J. D. Stock, D. R. Montgomery, B. D. Collins, W. E. Dietrich, and L. Sklar (2005)
Geological Society of America Bulletin 117, 174-194
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Paleocene-Eocene syncontractional sedimentation in narrow, lacustrine-dominated basins of east-central Tibet.
B. K. Horton, A. Yin, M. S. Spurlin, J. Zhou, and J. Wang (2002)
Geological Society of America Bulletin 114, 771-786
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Effects of orographic precipitation variations on the concavity of steady-state river profiles.
G. H. Roe, D. R. Montgomery, and B. Hallet (2002)
Geology 30, 143-146
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
A Channelization Model of Landscape Evolution.
C. P. Stark and G. J. Stark (2001)
Am J Sci 301, 486-512
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Fluvial Landscape Response Time: How Plausible Is Steady-State Denudation?.
K. X. Whipple (2001)
Am J Sci 301, 313-325
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Slope Distributions, Threshold Hillslopes, and Steady-state Topography.
D. R. Montgomery (2001)
Am J Sci 301, 432-454
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Multiple Scales in River Basin Morphology.
W. B. Dade (2001)
Am J Sci 301, 60-73
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Forest clearing and regional landsliding.
D. R. Montgomery, K. M. Schmidt, H. M. Greenberg, and W. E. Dietrich (2000)
Geology 28, 311-314
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Drainage rearrangement by river capture, beheading and diversion.
P. Bishop (1995)
Progress in Physical Geography 19, 449-473
   Abstract »    PDF »
Fluvial geomorphology.
B. L. Rhoads (1994)
Progress in Physical Geography 18, 103-123
   PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)