Abstract

Quantification of how geomorphic features, such as river long profiles, can be ‘inverted’ for tectonic rates remains a key challenge in the Earth Sciences. In particular, the rate at which transient knickpoints propagate through a landscape fundamentally controls geomorphic response times to a change in boundary conditions, such as a change in fault throw rate. This talk addresses the extent to which we are now capable of extracting ‘tectonics from topography’ using case studies from areas of active normal faulting in the Mediterranean, and evaluates the timescale over which transient tectonic signals are recorded in the landscape. Recently published examples from the Sperchios Graben and Northern Gulf of Evia, Greece, show how geomorphic analyses and fault interaction theory together can be used to estimate fault throw rates and linkage times, but also demonstrate some of the challenges that still remain.