Towards Integrating Rockwall Retreat into a Multilayer Landscape Evolution Model Using TopoToolbox to Investigate Plume Mode Erosion

Recently it has become clear that mantle-induced forces, and mantle plumes in particular, contribute significantly to uplift processes (Plume Mode). However, the formation of a landscape in uplift due to a plume in the subsurface has hardly been studied so far.

Therefore, in a first approach, the modelling of valley development in a plume mode shaped area is planned using the Landscape Evolution Model (LEM) named TTLEM, which is part of the Matlab based program TopoToolbox. The model will first be adapted to be able to create a real multilayer model. In addition, TTLEM will be adjusted to better implement slope-parallel weathering in bedrock observed in nature, rather than describing slope inflow as implicit linear or nonlinear diffusion with a threshold slope, as all current LEM do at the moment.

The model will be used to show that an upwelling plume influences erosion and sedimentation behavior at the surface. However, it will also be investigated which indications can be drawn from sediment distributions at the surface regarding the plume in the subsurface.

Here we show how rockwall retreat can be integrated into a real multilayer LEM to study the evolution of a landscape characterized by a plume mode.