Abstract
All landscapes are subject to stress fields, conditioned by their formation and ongoing tectonic and geomorphic changes. With this ESEX Commentary we wish to stimulate a debate on this invisible but persistent stress control on landforms, processes and materials in geomorphology. We address the legacy of active and passive stress fields, which translates into the concept of ‘tectonic predesign’, in conjunction with a perspective of geomorphic processes being driven by subcritical stresses. These concepts complement each other as ‘subcritical processes’ are controlled by tectonic predesign and in turn modulate the stress fields. This offers new theoretical and practical perspectives on how landscapes evolve, processes form materials and how rocks break easily.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 381-388 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Earth Surface Processes and Landforms |
Volume | 44 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jan 2019 |
Keywords
- erosion
- landscape evolution
- material properties
- theoretical geomorphology
- weathering