Tectonic, climatic and lithologic influences on landscape fractal dimension and hypsometry: implications for landscape evolution in the San Gabriel Mountains, California

Abstract

East-west variation in tectonic activity and strong north-south climatic gradients provide a unique opportunity to study tectonic, climatic and lithologic influences on landscape evolution in the San Gabriel Mountains, California. The competing tendencies of constructive tectonic and degradational climatic effects act against lithologic resistance to influence fluvial systems, and thus the nature of adjacent and nested drainage basins. Landscape fractal dimension ( D), a measure of surface roughness over a variety of scales, and the hypsometric integral ( I), a measure of the distribution of landmass volume above a reference plane are useful measures of altitudinal variation with scale. As such, they may provide clues as to the relative influences of tectonism, climate and rock type. Topographic analyses of the San Gabriel Mountains clearly indicate that tectonism strongly influences D at range-wavelength scales, while rock-type variation apparently influences D and I at smaller scales. Tectonism is also shown to influence I across the mountain-piedmont junction at all scales investigated. Tectonic activity shows strong negative correlation with both I and D because tectonically active portions of the mountain front do not allow time for much landscape dissection by lower-order streams. Three-dimensional topographic modeling suggests climatic parameters exert a stronger influence on D than does tectonism. This modeling also suggests an inverse correlation between range-scale D and I with varying climate and uplift rate; a positive correlation is observed in the San Gabriel Mountains. We suggest this difference results from (1) differences in uplift style between the San Gabriel Mountains and the models, and/or (2) variation in rock-type erodibility present in the San Gabriel Mountains but which was not modeled. We postulate that the interaction of tectonic, climatic and lithologic parameters influences the stable I and D to which a landscape evolves. Key questions remaining include: (1) the time required to reach a stable I or D after a climatic or tectonic change; (2) what does the fractal nature of topography tell us about the scaling characteristics of major landforming processes; (3) how does climate influence range-scale I and both range- and small-scale D; and (4) what are the effects on I and D of range-scale lithologic variation, both in the models and in real landscapes?