Global Influence of Tectonic Rock Damage on Erosional Efficiency

Active fault influence landscape through both tectonic deformation and surface erosion. Although their role in generating rock uplift is well established, the global impact of fault-related rock damage on erosional efficiency remains poorly constrained. Using a compilation of 1,744 cosmogenic 10Be–derived erosion rates, we demonstrate that erosional efficiency is systematically enhanced within approximately 15 km of mapped fault traces and declines with increasing distance, following an inverse sigmoidal trend extending to roughly 100 km. The strongest responses are associated with reverse faults and faults exceeding 140 km in length. The observed decay length scale implies that tectonic damage extends well beyond fault-core pulverization, potentially reflecting grain-scale weakening, increased fracture density from seismic shaking, and distributed deformation within complex fault networks. Machine-learning analyses identify proximity to faults as a primary control on erosional efficiency, surpassing the influence of precipitation and lithology, with model performance further improved by incorporating metrics of seismic shaking. Together, these results indicate that active tectonics modulate erosion not only through uplift but also by enhancing erosional efficiency via widespread rock damage.