Numerical model predictions of autogenic fluvial terraces and comparison to climate change expectations

Abstract

Terraces eroded into sediment (alluvial) and bedrock (strath) preserve an important history of river activity. River terraces are thought to form when a river switches from a period of slow vertical incision and valley widening to fast vertical incision and terrace abandonment. Consequently, terraces are often interpreted to reflect changing external drivers including tectonics, sea level, and climate. In contrast, the intrinsic unsteadiness of lateral migration in rivers may generate terraces even under constant rates of vertical incision without external forcing. To explore this mechanism, we simulate landscape evolution by a vertically incising, meandering river and isolate the age and geometry of autogenic river terraces. Modeled autogenic terraces form for a wide range of lateral and vertical incision rates and are often paired and longitudinally extensive for intermediate ratios of vertical-to-lateral erosion rate. Autogenic terraces have a characteristic reoccurrence time that scales with the time for relief generation. There is a preservation bias against older terraces due to reworking of previously visited parts of the valley. Evolving, spatial differences in bank strength between bedrock and sediment reduce terrace formation frequency and length, favor pairing, and can explain sublinear terrace margins at valley boundaries. Age differences and geometries for modeled autogenic terraces are consistent, in cases, with natural terraces and overlap with metrics commonly attributed to terrace formation due to climate change. We suggest a new phase space of terrace properties that may allow differentiation of autogenic terraces from terraces formed by external drivers.

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