Channel profiles around Himalayan river anticlines: Constraints on their formation from digital elevation model analysis

Abstract

We present a comparison between measured and numerically modeled channel profiles of rivers in two important drainage basins of Central Nepal: the Kali-Gandaki and the Aran drainage basins. Modeled channel profiles are based on a simple stream power approach using best fit exponents defining the nonlinearities in the relative contributions of local channel gradient and water flux to erosion rate. Our analysis of the stream power in the whole river network confirms the work of other authors that a 50- to 80-km-wide zone, roughly corresponding to the High Himalayan topography, is subjected to rapid rock uplift. We suggest a model where the uplift of this zone is driven by erosion and isostatic response, so that centers of maximum uplift are located within the main channels of the north-south draining rivers. We also suggest that the rate of uplift slows down with increasing distance to the main channels. Such a spatial distribution of the uplift leads ultimately to the formation of river anticlines as observed along all major Himalayan rivers. We propose that the formation of river anticlines along south draining Himalayan rivers was accelerated by a sudden increase of the drainage area and discharge when the rivers captured orogen-parallel drainages on the north side of the range. This may follow successive headward cutting into the Tibetan Plateau. The model is confirmed by differences between main channels and east-west running tributaries. Time-dependent numerical models predict that capture events cause strongly elevated erosion rates in the main channel. Copyright 2008 by the American Geophysical Union.