Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2025

Publication Title

Annals of the American Association of Geographers

Abstract

Canyons in Guadalupe Mountains National Park are excellent locations to study the discrete boundary conditions that influence longitudinal channel profile evolution including climate, tectonics, hydrology, and lithology. The Guadalupe Mountain landscape records deep earth mantle processes in combination with surficial channel erosion and incision. Knickpoints and convex segments in longitudinal river profiles document impacts of climate change, tectonics, or surface processes. This study combines field observations with an analysis of longitudinal profile slopes and residual errors to evaluate how bedrock strength can be distinguished from features created by climate change, faulting, or subsidence in Pine Springs and McKittrick Canyons within Guadalupe Mountains National Park. Rock strength values averaging 62.3 ± 6.5 were observed in the field along active bedrock channels. Channel morphometries were described using digital elevation models, and Flint’s Law was applied to reaches of the stream channels to calculate mean concavity and distribution of channel steepness indexes. Knickpoints in longitudinal profiles corresponded to three stream confluences and one normal fault. Correlations between rock strength and channel steepness varied between two study canyons in the park. Significant correlations between rock strength and stream gradient were observed in five hydrologically simple tributary channels. Disparity in statistical results might be related to upstream drainage area variations and stream capture associated with local faults and rock strength differences. Variable conditions constrained within the small area of Guadalupe Mountains National Park highlight the uncertainties that influence larger scale regional models.

Funding Source

Funding for this project was provided through the Petroleum Research Fund Grant (53854-UNI8). This article was published Open Access thanks to a transformative agreement between Milner Library and Taylor & Francis.

DOI

10.1080/24694452.2025.2511941

Comments

First published in Annals of American Association of Geographers (2025): https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2025.2511941

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License, which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.

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