Meeting:Abstract 2011 CSDMS meeting-041

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CSDMS all hands meeting 2011

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Feedbacks between surface processes and flexural isostasy: a motivation for coupling models

Andrew Wickert, University of Colorado Boulder Colorado, . wickert@colorado.edu

Greg Tucker, University of Colorado Boulder Colorado, USA"USA" is not in the list (Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, ...) of allowed values for the "CSDMS meeting coauthor country" property.. gtucker@colorado.edu

Eric Hutton, University of Colorado Boulder Colorado, USA"USA" is not in the list (Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, ...) of allowed values for the "CSDMS meeting coauthor country" property.. eric.hutton@colorado.edu

Beichuan Yan, University of Colorado Boulder Colorado, USA"USA" is not in the list (Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, ...) of allowed values for the "CSDMS meeting coauthor country" property.. Beichuan.Yan@colorado.edu

Scott Peckham, University of Colorado Boulder Colorado, USA"USA" is not in the list (Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, ...) of allowed values for the "CSDMS meeting coauthor country" property.. scott.peckham@colorado.edu

[[Image:|300px|right|link=File:]]Answers to scientific questions often involve coupled systems that lie within separate fields of study. An example of this is flexural isostasy and surface mass transport. Erosion, deposition, and moving ice masses change loads on the Earth surface, which induce a flexural isostatic response. These isostatic deflections in turn change topography, which is a large control on surface processes. We couple a landscape evolution model (CHILD) and a flexural isostasy model (Flexure) within the CSDMS framework to understand interactions between these processes. We highlight a few scenarios in which this feedback is crucial for understanding what happens on the surface of the Earth: foredeeps around mountain belts, rivers at the margins of large ice sheets, and the "old age" of decaying mountain ranges. We also show how the response changes from simple analytical solutions for flexural isostasy to numerical solutions that allow us to explore spatial variability in lithospheric strength. This work places the spotlight on the kinds of advances that can be made when members of the broader Earth surface process community design their models to be coupleable, share them, and connect them under the unified framework developed by CSDMS. We encourage Earth surface scientists to unleash their creativity in constructing, sharing, and coupling their models to better learn how these building blocks make up the wonderfully complicated Earth surface system.