Rock's erosion by rivers through the years helps geoscientists to detect the evolution of mountains as well as the climate change. Rather than at a constant predictable rate, rivers erode rock at different speeds over the years, as is revealed by a new study published on January 16 in the journal Nature.
Although scientists can estimate the mountains' uplift rate by examining dried up riverbeds, floods or landslides can dump significant amounts of sediment into riverbeds and stop river erosion, as Noah Finnegan, lead study author and a geomorphologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, said. Finnegan, in order to investigate this assumption, gathered a global database of river erosion rates and found that it was right. The study shows that erosion rate is definitely not constant and it could be very fast or very slow. Except of the floods, climate change may be another factor affecting erosion rate. This statement though, could be biased according to Finnegan's database, as randomness could be the actual cause. "This study highlights the importance of understanding not just the mechanics of river incision into bedrock, but also the magnitude and frequency of events that deposit material into rivers and protect the riverbed from erosion," DiBiase a geomorphologist at Caltech said.
Source: LiveScience
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