QUANTIFYING LANDSCAPE EVOLUTION RESPONSE TO CHANGES IN DYNAMIC TOPOGRAPHY

Earth’s topography is a convolution of complex interactions of the mantle, the crust, and surface processes, where the latter are controlled by the dynamics of the atmosphere and sea level change. An outstanding problem in landscape evolution and continental dynamics is the delineation of mantle convective flow induced topography (termed dynamic topography) from the geological record. Therefore, to unravel this record, we need to first understand the complex landscape evolution response to long-term dynamic forcing from the mantle in a controlled study. Recent advances in landscape evolution modeling have overcome a previous limitation in spatial and temporal scales, making modeling the effects of large-scale long-term features such as dynamic topography possible. In this study, we utilize FastScape (Braun and Willett, 2013) to quantify the effect of moderate dynamic topography uplift on landscape evolution in the presence of flexural unloading. We find that the coupled flexural response to erosion driven by changes in dynamic topography is comparable in magnitude to changes in dynamic topography and therefore can significantly enhance the effects of dynamic topography.