Seminar

Focused erosive systems are hypothesized to concentrate uplift and exhumation to the extent that the erosive signal dominates both the tectonic development and landform formation. However, the upper limit of vertical rock motions and associated features that may be caused by focused-erosion are poorly understood. It is challenging to parse the relative contributions of focused-erosion from tectonic impact in generating localized uplift/exhumation systems. Resolving this problem could allow us to know more about the consequence of the interaction between tectonics and other Earth Spheres, and provide a new view on the development of terrestrial planetary landscapes. To isolate the signal of focused-erosion, we are exploring the development of the Sutlej River valley in the NW Indian Himalaya where locates perpendicularly to the strike direction and has quasi-homogeneous tectonic setting. The evidence shows that the structure of the Sutlej River region could represent the early stage of tectonic aneurysm development (river anticline). To explore focused erosion’s impacts on the structural evolution of this region, we propose to produce the analogue and numerical simulations for this dynamic process. The conditions for the development of transverse anticline to the tectonic aneurysm and the upper limit of influence by focused-erosion might be recognized by varying the parameters. By this study, the impact of focused-erosion could be taken into account properly in the reconstruction of regional tectonic history, which could be conducive to the understanding of the ancient tectonic processes.

Additional information: Miss HUANG Yuwei, yuweih9@connect.hku.hk