Drainage reorganization during mountain building in the river system of the Eastern Cordillera of the Colombian Andes
Struth, Lucía (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Geologia)
Babault, Julien (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Geologia)
Teixell Cácharo, Antonio (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Geologia)

Date:	2015
Abstract:	The Eastern Cordillera of Colombia is a thick-skinned thrust-fold belt that is characterized by two topographic domains: (1) the axial zone, a high altitude plateau (the Sabana de Bogotá, 2500 masl) with low local relief and dominated by longitudinal rivers, and (2) the Cordillera flanks, where local relief exceeds 1000 m and transverse rivers dominate. On the basis of an analysis of digital topography and river parameters combined with a review of paleodrainage data, we show that the accumulation of shortening and crustal thickening during the Andean orogeny triggered a process of fluvial reorganization in the Cordillera. Owing to a progressive increase of the regional slope, the drainage network evolves from longitudinal to transverse-dominated, a process that is still active at present. This study provides the idea of progressive divide migration toward the inner part of the mountain belt, by which the area of the Sabana de Bogotá plateau is decreasing, the flanks increase in area, and ultimately transverse rivers will probably dominate the drainage of the Cordillera.
Grants:	Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte BES-2011-050262 Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad CGL2010-15416 Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad CGL2014-54180-P
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial i la comunicació pública de l'obra, sempre que no sigui amb finalitats comercials, i sempre que es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original. No es permet la creació d'obres derivades.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió sotmesa a revisió
Subject:	Drainage network ; Fluvial capture ; Drainage evolution ; Eastern Cordillera of Colombia
Published in:	Geomorphology, Vol. 250 (Dec. 2015) , p. 370-383

DOI: 10.1016/j.geomorph.2015.09.012

Pre-print 41 p, 3.6 MB

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