Testing the Role of Inherited Tectonic Structure on Badland Landscape Development

#InheritedTectonics #EarthSurfaceDynamics

The role of inherited tectonic structure in governing erosion & sedimentation behaviour and its spatio-temporal topographic pattern is an increasingly investigated geological process. Structural discontinuities (i.e. tectonic weakness) typically increase the vulnerability of fault rock to erosion, which ultimately results in expansion of gully and/or drainage network and enhancement of erosion and (re)sedimentation in spatially weathered and weakened rocks. It is however not often questioned and inspected in highly erosive badland landscapes particularly with geological mapping & modelling results and Landscape Evolution Modelling (LEM).

In our publication, the role of inherited structural discontinuities in gully erosion and sedimentation and the consequent badland landscape development in the extensional tectonic structure of the Kula graben (western Turkey) was inspected. As a continuation of our earlier research (Aksay et al., 2022, 2023 and 2024), we aimed at testing the role of catchment-wide ‘erodibility’ and ‘sedimentability’ of lithology and particularly faults in causing spatio-temporal variations in the Kula Badlands using LEM LAPSUS (Landscape Process Modelling at Multi-dimensions and Scales; Schoorl et al., 2000, 2002).

The relationship between gully development and inherited tectonic structure in the Kula Badlands is shown in a tectonic diagram. From Aksay et al., 2023.

Our work is online on Earth Surface Processes and Landforms (ESPL) via the following link. We greatly appreciate comments and suggestions of Editor-in-Chief Prof. Stuart Lane of Université de Lausanne in our manuscript.

Aksay, S., Schoorl, J.M. and Veldkamp, A., 2024. Evaluating the role of inherited structural discontinuities in badland erosional processes through landscape evolution modelling. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 50(1), e6031. 

https://doi.org/10.1002/esp.6031 

Other references:

Aksay, S., Schoorl, J. M., Versendaal, A., Wallinga, J., Maddy, D., van der Schriek, T., Demir, T., Aytaç, A. S., & Veldkamp, A., 2024. Timing of gully development in a structurally controlled badland landscape, western Turkey. CATENA, 234, 107616.

https://doi.org/10.1016/J.CATENA.2023.107616

Aksay, S., 2023. Shaking good land(scape)s into bad lands - the role of inherited tectonic structure. PhD Dissertation, Wageningen University, Netherlands. ISBN: 9789464479133

https://doi.org/10.18174/639668​

Aksay, S., Schoorl, J.M., Veldkamp, A., Demir, T., Aytaç, A.S., Maddy, D., 2022. Structurally Controlled Landscape Evolution in Kula Badlands, Western Turkey. Geosciences, 12, 390.

https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences12100390