Geology Commons^™

Rock Strength Along A Fluvial Transect Of The Colorado Plateau - Quantifying A Fundamental Control On Geomorphology, Natalie Bursztyn, Joel Pederson

Natalie Bursztyn

Bedrock strength is a key parameter that influences slope stability, landscape erosion, and fluvial incision. Yet, it is often ignored or indirectly constrained in studies of landscape evolution, as with the K erodibility parameter in stream-power models. Empirical datasets of rock strength suited to address geomorphic questions are rare, in part because of the difficulty in measuring those rocks at Earth's surface that are heterolithic, weak, or poorly exposed. Here we present a large dataset of measured bedrock strength organized by rock units exposed along the length of the trunk Green–Colorado River through the iconic Colorado Plateau of the western …