Drainage patterns

The pattern of fluvial dissection of a landscape is of considerable importance in understanding the structural influence on drainage evolution. Dendritic patterns (see figure), so called because of their similarity to branching organic forms, are most common where rocks or sediments are flat-lying and preferential zones of structural weakness are minimal. The conveyance properties of a dendritic network are analogous to blood circulation systems and tree branching. Rectangular and angular patterns occur where faults, joints, and other linear structures introduce a grain to drainage. Where a broad tilt or regional slope occurs on a surface of otherwise uniform resistance, a parallel pattern occurs. Special drainage patterns characterize belts of parallel folds (trellis pattern), domes or volcanoes (radial pattern), and other landscape types.

In a series of tilted sediments the differential erosion of softer units, such as clay and shale, results in valleys developed perpendicular to the dip or tilt of the units. These strike valleys are paralleled by ridges of the tilted sediments called cuestas. Another term for a strike stream, which parallels the structural grain, is a longitudinal stream. In contrast, transverse streams cut across structural trends. Streams flowing down the tilted sediments of the cuesta are called dip streams because they parallel the structural dip of the strata. Streams draining the cuesta scarp into longitudinal valleys flowing opposite to the structural dip are called antidip streams.

Cross-axial drainage

One of the most interesting anomalies that occurs in drainage evolution is the development of stream courses across the axes of structural zones (e.g., upwarps and fold belts). Some examples of cross-axial, or discordant, drainage include rivers that appear to take the most difficult routes possible through folded regions such as the Appalachian Mountains of the United States and the Zagros Mountains of Iran. The classical studies of cross-axial drainage were made during the exploration of the Colorado River system in the 19th century by the American geologist John Wesley Powell. The Colorado River and its tributaries cross great structural upwarps. Rather than flowing around domes or plunging folds, the rivers carved canyons into what appears to be paths of greatest resistance. One theory posed by Powell for such relationships is that of antecedence. According to this view, the rivers were already in their present positions when the various anticlinal folds and upwarps began to grow. A relevant analogy is a saw into which a log is being pushed. The saw represents the river and its continuing degradation, and the log represents the growing upwarp.

Another possible origin of cross-axial drainage is superimposition. According to this theory, a cover of sedimentary material must bury older structures. The river develops on this overlying sedimentary cover and subsequently imposes its pattern across the underlying structures as they are exposed by continuing degradation.

A third explanation for cross-axial drainage is that of inheritance. In this hypothesis, an erosion surface is developed across the structure zone by long-continued planation. When the streams incise, abandoning the former planation surface, they become imposed across the structures. Alternatively, the stream may actually exploit zones of weakness or minimal resistance as it downcuts from former levels. Stream capture (also called stream piracy) occurs as more aggressively eroding portions of the drainage cut through divides. In many cases, a complex combination of the above processes probably occurs to yield the final result.

Stream capture is especially common where longitudinal streams flowing on the weaker rocks of a fold belt erode into the valleys of transverse streams that must cross the resistant strata. Sections of valley abandoned after such captures are known as wind gaps. These contrast with the water gaps that still contain transverse streams. The famous water gaps of the Appalachians are excellent examples of such patterns.

Periglacial zone

The term periglacial relates to cold-climate processes and landforms (see glacial landform: Periglacial landforms). The most important periglacial influence on valleys is frost action, which produces abundant debris by freeze-thaw action on rock and soil. During the coldest periods of the Quaternary (about the last 2.6 million years), the periglacial zone was enlarged to approximately twice its present extent. Hillslopes became mantled with frost-shattered rubble that moved downslope during cycles of freezing and thawing. The relicts of this periglacial activity characterize much of the modern humid-temperate zone—e.g., in portions of Pennsylvania and Wisconsin in the United States and England and Poland.

Arid zone

In arid regions moisture conditions are inadequate to support abundant vegetative cover of the land surface. As a result, the land is subjected to intense fluvial, eolian, and mass-wasting processes. The importance of fluvial action may seem ironic for an arid region. Although most arid regions receive little rainfall, the amount that falls is especially effective. Rare but intense arid-region rainstorms act upon a landscape that is unprotected by vegetation. Of course, some hyperarid regions receive such infrequent rainfall that fluvial processes are indeed ineffective. Nevertheless, even the most arid places on Earth show evidence of fluvial activity, either because of wetter conditions in the past or because of very rare rainstorms.

Tropical zone

Tropical regions are dominated by dense vegetative cover and deep weathering profiles. In continuously humid tropical zones, fluvial activity is facilitated by intense rainfall but inhibited by the protective effect of rainforests. The lateritic soils of these regions, however, do not promote deep root penetration, and the vegetative cover may be undermined by fluvial erosion or mass movement. Fluvial activity may be quite intense in the tropics, especially in tectonically active areas. In more stable cratons, however, the landscape is dominated by low-relief planation surfaces. Rivers flowing on the deeply weathered regolith of these surfaces have low stream power and transport mainly fine-grained weathering products. Thus, immense contrasts in fluvial activity exist in the tropics.

At higher tropical latitudes, the continuously humid zone of the Equator changes to a zone of seasonal rainfall. Such regions have savanna vegetation because of prolonged dry seasons. Erosion rates may be extremely high in savanna environments.