Nice Curves: Hill Shape Reveals Secrets of Earth Beneath
Charles Choi, LiveScience Contributor | August 22, 2013 02:01pm ET
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A bird's-eye view of the San Andreas fault where it cuts along the base of the appropriately-named Temblor Range near Bakersfield, Calif. The San Andreas is the linear feature to the right of the mountains. To the right of the fault is the Carrizo Plain. This image was made with data collected by the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, which flew on a Shuttle mission in February 2000.Credit: NASA/JPL/NIMA |
These findings also suggest hills might one day even have the chance to reveal details about distant alien worlds, scientists added.
The concept of linking the shape of hills to any tectonic activity reshaping the landscape has been around for at least a couple of decades, explained researcher Martin Hurst, a geomorphologist at the British Geological Survey. However, until now, it was difficult to measure the shape of hills in enough detail to recognize which features might be an effect of erosion driven by tectonic activity.
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