Landscape response to changes in dynamic topography

Abstract

AbstractMantle convection modelling can be used to understand the temporal evolution of dynamic, or convectively maintained, topography. A promising way of assessing these geodynamic models is by comparison of the predicted erosional response of dynamic topography with observed offshore sedimentary records. However, it is difficult to deconvolve this observed record into contributions from changes in climate, tectonics, and dynamic topography. Here, we use a landscape evolution model capable of producing simulations at the necessary spatial and temporal scales to quantify landscape response to moderate changes in dynamic topography in the presence of flexural isostatic unloading and loading due to erosion and deposition. We demonstrate that moderate changes in dynamic topography can produce an erosional response in the form of increased sediment flux to continental margins. This response can persist long after the influence of dynamic topography and is dependent on the interplay of uplift rate, rock erodibility and initial topography.