The coupling between tectonics and surface processes fundamentally governs the dynamics of mountain belts and basins. A diverse range of geomorphic and sedimentary records, including longitudinal river profiles, fluvial terraces, downstream fining trends, growth strata, sediment provenance, sequence stratigraphy, and changing depositional environments provide first order constraints on the interactions between tectonics, erosion, and deformation at the Earth’s surface. The increasing integration of new methods for quantifying erosion rates and source-to-sink sediment transfer at a range of temporal and spatial scales with landscape evolution, stratigraphic, and tectonic models has significantly improved our ability to explore how the rates and styles of deformation across diverse tectonic settings are recorded by surface processes. These advances now make it possible to renew our understanding of the interactions between surface processes and tectonic deformation.

We invite contributions that use geomorphic or sedimentary records to understand tectonic deformation, and we welcome studies that address the interactions and couplings between tectonics and surface processes at a range of scales. In particular, we encourage coupled catchment-basin studies that take advantage of numerical/physical modeling, geochemical tools for quantifying rates of surface processes (cosmogenic nuclides, low-temperature thermochronology, luminescence dating) and high resolution digital topographic and subsurface data. We also encourage field or subsurface structural and geomorphic studies of landscape evolution, sedimentary patterns and provenance in deformed settings, and invite contributions that address the role of surface processes in modulating rates of deformation and tectonic style.