Apparent increasing rates of stream incision in the eastern United States during the late Cenozoic

Research Article| October 01, 2000 Apparent increasing rates of stream incision in the eastern United States during the late Cenozoic Hugh H. Mills Hugh H. Mills 1Department of Earth Sciences, Tennessee Technological University, 815 Quadrangle Drive, Cookeville, Tennessee 38505, USA Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Author and Article Information Hugh H. Mills 1Department of Earth Sciences, Tennessee Technological University, 815 Quadrangle Drive, Cookeville, Tennessee 38505, USA Publisher: Geological Society of America Received: 24 Mar 2000 Revision Received: 13 Jul 2000 Accepted: 17 Jul 2000 First Online: 02 Jun 2017 Online ISSN: 1943-2682 Print ISSN: 0091-7613 Geological Society of America Geology (2000) 28 (10): 955–957. https://doi.org/10.1130/0091-7613(2000)282.0.CO;2 Article history Received: 24 Mar 2000 Revision Received: 13 Jul 2000 Accepted: 17 Jul 2000 First Online: 02 Jun 2017 Cite View This Citation Add to Citation Manager Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Search Site Citation Hugh H. Mills; Apparent increasing rates of stream incision in the eastern United States during the late Cenozoic. Geology 2000;; 28 (10): 955–957. doi: https://doi.org/10.1130/0091-7613(2000)282.0.CO;2 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Refmanager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentBy SocietyGeology Search Advanced Search Abstract Stream incision rates were obtained from 16 studies of terraces or stream-associated cave levels in the eastern United States. A log-log regression of age against height above modern river level (ARL) shows that age increases approximately as the square of height ARL. This relation may indicate an increasing rate of stream incision through time. Alternatively, the relation may simply reflect an inherent effect of measured time interval on process rate, as described by Gardner et al., who found that data from hundreds of studies showed a tendency for geologic process rates to decrease for increasing measurement intervals. A regression equation for landscape denudation rates showed that the thickness removed increased as the 0.82 power of the time interval over which the denudation was measured. Gardner et al. suggested that this bias could be removed by the use of statistically derived scaling functions. However, a similar regression equation for the data in this study shows a slope of 0.38, representing a much more rapid decrease in rate with increasing measurement interval than found by Gardner et al. Even after applying the scaling function calculated by Gardner et al., my data show a 19 fold decrease in incision rate for a 103 increase in the measured time interval. This result suggests that the observed decrease in stream incision rates with greater time spans may be at least partly real. You do not have access to this content, please speak to your institutional administrator if you feel you should have access.