The role of precipitation on Bedrock Channel Incision in Kauai, HI
Name
1028750227-MIT.pdf
Description
Full printable version
Size
3.77 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
2774c507a780a7181459918fb3c5eebc
Author(s)
Slosberg, Michelle I
Advisor(s)
Taylor Perron.
Date Issued
2012
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
Erosion of bedrock channels is frequently modeled with the stream power law, which relates erosion rates to drainage area, slope, and an erosional efficiency coefficient k. The value of k, however, varies with many physical factors and most of these relationships are not well quantified. This study uses a form of stream power dependent on mean annual precipitation. The island of Kauai in the Hawaiian island chain is used as a case study due to the island's steep precipitation gradient and relatively constant lithology. Erosion rates are calculated by constructing splines to approximate the island's shape at the end of the shield-building phase, and these data are used to calculate erosion rates. The precipitation-dependent stream power model is tested with a multiple regression analysis of the Kauai data. Erosion rates are positively correlated with precipitation rates and erosional efficiency is related to precipitation rate by a power of ~0.4.
Description
Thesis: S.B., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, 2012.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 35-38).
Subjects
Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
Terms of Use
MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.
Persistent DSpace Link
