Path selection in the growth of rivers
River networks exhibit a complex ramified structure that has inspired decades of studies. However, an understanding of the propagation of a single stream remains elusive. Here we invoke a criterion for path selection from fracture mechanics and apply it to the growth of streams in a diffusion field....
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
| Published: |
National Academy of Sciences (U.S.)
2017
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/108681 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7997-0119 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4243-5478 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4006-7771 |
| Summary: | River networks exhibit a complex ramified structure that has inspired decades of studies. However, an understanding of the propagation of a single stream remains elusive. Here we invoke a criterion for path selection from fracture mechanics and apply it to the growth of streams in a diffusion field. We show that, as it cuts through the landscape, a stream maintains a symmetric groundwater flow around its tip. The local flow conditions therefore determine the growth of the drainage network. We use this principle to reconstruct the history of a network and to find a growth law associated with it. Our results show that the deterministic growth of a single channel based on its local environment can be used to characterize the structure of river networks. |
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