Badland landscape response to individual geomorphic events

Ci-Jian Yang (), Jens M. Turowski, Niels Hovius, Jiun-Chuan Lin and Kuo-Jen Chang
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Ci-Jian Yang: National Taiwan University
Jens M. Turowski: German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ)
Niels Hovius: German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ)
Jiun-Chuan Lin: National Taiwan University
Kuo-Jen Chang: National Taipei University of Technology

Nature Communications, 2021, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract Landscapes form by the erosion and deposition of sediment, driven by tectonic and climatic forcing. The principal geomorphic processes of badland – landsliding, debris flow and runoff erosion – are similar to those in full scale mountain topography, but operate faster. Here, we show that in the badlands of SW Taiwan, individual rainfall events cause quantifiable landscape change, distinct for the type of rainfall. Typhoon rain reduced hillslope gradients, while lower-intensity precipitation either steepened or flattened the landscape, depending on its initial topography. The steep topography observed in our first survey is inconsistent with the effects of any of the rainfall events. We suggest that it is due to the 2016 Mw 6.4 Meinong earthquake. The observed pattern in the badlands was mirrored in the response of the Taiwan mountain topography to typhoon Morakot in 2009, confirming that badlands offer special opportunities to quantify natural landscape dynamics on observational time scales.

Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-24903-1

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