Collaborative Research: FACET: Quantifying the topographic response to tectonic processes in southern Taiwan

气候驱动的侵蚀和构造过程的相互作用塑造和雕刻地球？的地形通过一系列的过程。这些过程可以是渐进的，例如构造板块缓慢、持续的碰撞将地貌抬升到海平面以上，也可以是灾难性的，例如罕见的高震级地震或大型热带气旋通过滑坡过程造成侵蚀。该项目是美国和台湾研究人员的合作项目，旨在了解这些过程如何在台湾南部作为自然实验室的一系列时间尺度上相互作用。具体而言，该项目将通过阐明负责塑造景观的侵蚀过程以及构造和气候如何影响这些过程来推进知识。与台湾和美国科学家的合作将建立国际研究能力，同时了解危险构造，气候和侵蚀过程的地形特征，如地震，台风和山体滑坡。该项目以多种方式造福社会或促进预期的社会成果。研究生培训，美国-台湾研究生研讨会活动，以及早期职业科学家的支持将培养一支有竞争力的STEM劳动力。此外，该项目将通过研究团队共同教授的夏季研究生构造地貌学研讨会促进台湾科学家和研究生与美国研究生之间的互动，并在美国科学家和台湾科学家之间建立新的研究合作。本计画将探讨台湾南部地形坡度大的地区，气候驱动的侵蚀、构造与地形沿着的交互作用。美国和台湾的研究小组将测试以下想法：（1）有限流量水流动力侵蚀模型预测台湾南部对构造的河流响应;（2）由宇宙成因放射性核素估计的流域平均侵蚀速率为台湾南部的山坡侵蚀提供可靠的估计;（3）台湾南部的形变和造山作用以60-90 mm/a的速率向南传播。研究小组将量化整个全新世的河流切割和山坡侵蚀，以限制沿陡峭地形坡度沿着走向的景观不平衡程度。河流下切将通过测定栖息在现代河流高水位线以上的斯特拉特阶地的年代来估计。整个全新世的山坡侵蚀将受到限制，估计古侵蚀速率与宇宙成因的核素在梯田上的沉积物。此外，研究小组将量化结构数据，并将其与大地测量和地球物理数据相结合，以了解运动学演化和构造过程沿着走向。综合地貌和构造图片的研究领域将提供一个严格的测试的基本物理控制河流切口在构造活跃的景观和限制的速度造山过程中使用地貌，地形和运动学的信息。

The interaction of climate-driven erosion and tectonic processes shape and sculpt Earth?s topography through a range of processes. The processes can be gradual, such as the slow, continuous collision of tectonic plates lifting a landscape above sea-level, or they can be catastrophic such as rare, high magnitude earthquakes or large tropical cyclones that drive erosion by landslide processes. This project, a collaborative effort between U.S. and Taiwanese researchers, is aimed at understanding how such processes interact over a range of timescales using southern Taiwan as a natural laboratory. Specifically, this project will advance knowledge by elucidating the erosion processes responsible for shaping the landscape and how tectonics and climate influence these processes. The collaboration with Taiwanese and U.S. scientists will build international research capacity while understanding the topographic signature of hazardous tectonic, climate, and erosion processes, such as earthquakes, typhoons, and landslides. The project benefits society or advances desired societal outcomes in many ways. Graduate student training, U.S.-Taiwan graduate student workshop activities, and early career scientist support will develop a competitive STEM workforce. Additionally, the project will facilitate the interaction among Taiwanese scientists and graduate students with U.S. graduate students through a summer graduate student workshop tectonic geomorphology co-taught by the research team and forge new research collaborations between U.S. scientists and Taiwanese scientists. This project will explore the interaction of climate driven erosion, tectonics, and topography along the steep topographic gradient in southern Taiwan. The U.S. and Taiwan research team will test the ideas that (1) detachment-limited stream power erosion model predicts the fluvial response to tectonics in southern Taiwan; (2) catchment averaged erosion rates estimated from cosmogenic radionuclides provide reliable estimates for hillslope erosion in southern Taiwan; and (3) deformation and mountain building processes propagated towards the south in southern Taiwan at about 60-90 mm/yr. The team will quantify river incision and hillslope erosion through the Holocene to constrain the magnitude of landscape disequilibrium along strike of the steep topographic gradient. River incision will be estimated by dating strath terraces perched well above modern river high water marks. Hillslope erosion throughout the Holocene will be constrained by estimating paleo-erosion rates with cosmogenic nuclides in the sediments on the terraces. Additionally, the research team will quantify structural data and integrate these with geodetic and geophysical data to understand the kinematic evolution and tectonic processes along strike. The integrated geomorphic and tectonic picture of the study area will provide a rigorous test of the underlying physical controls of river incision in a tectonically active landscape and constrain the rate of orogenic processes using geomorphic, topographic, and kinematic information.This award is co-funded by the NSF Office of International Science and Engineering.