Coupled length scales in eroding landscapes
Name
43876391-MIT.pdf
Description
Full printable version
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5.19 MB
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Checksum (MD5)
d20de206390340d5de90158b9cd5045d
Author(s)
Chan, Kelvin Ka Wing, 1974-
Advisor(s)
Daniel H. Rothman.
Date Issued
1999
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
We propose a method to study natural topography by means of local transform. A nonlinear local transform Alc[h(x)] of the elevation field h(x) is used to determine a director field of anisotropy a(x). The director field is directly related to local small-scale channel-like features. From study of the correlations of these with large-scale structure of drainage basins, characteristic coupling length scales are found which indicate an important breaking of scale invariance. We also show that these length scales are related to the average sizes of the individual drainage basins. Our study demonstrates one way in which landscape patterns of unknown origin may be quantitatively analyzed to determine the kind of mechanisms that have eroded them.
Description
Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, 1999.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 75-76).
Subjects
Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
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