Publication Date
2017
Document Type
Thesis
Committee Members
Jerry Clark (Committee Member), Allen Hunt (Advisor), Thomas Skinner (Committee Member)
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Abstract
The time evolution of a periodic landscape under the influence of chemical weathering and physical erosion is computed. The model used incorporates weathering and soil production as a flux limited reaction controlled by groundwater flow. Scaling of the flow rate is obtained from a percolation theoretic treatment. The erosion of the soil material produced by this process is modeled by the diffusion of elevation, as consistent with downslope soil transport proportional to the tangent of the angle of the topography, and application of the equation of continuity to surface soil transport. Three initial topographies are examined over a periods of thousands of years and resulting landforms and soil productivity compared. Differences in productivity between these cases are found to occur primarily within a short time span of hundreds of years. Times for propagation of a disturbance in one layer to another are also obtained.
Page Count
47
Department or Program
Department of Physics
Year Degree Awarded
2017
Copyright
Copyright 2017, all rights reserved. My ETD will be available under the "Fair Use" terms of copyright law.
ORCID ID
0000-0003-3318-8081
