Reach-scale evidence for feedbacks among chemical weathering, rock strength and erosion in bedrock rivers across Kohala Peninsula, Hawai‘i

Abstract:

Bedrock river downcutting is usually conceptualized in terms of shear-stress dependent erosion processes, such as abrasion and plucking. Many studies of climatic control on erosion have focused on the effect of rainfall rate on discharge. However, the erodibility of bedrock can also be influenced by climate-dependent chemical weathering. We show that this mechanism can not only influence erosion patterns and rates, but also reach-scale bedrock topography. First, we present a new numerical model that describes and explores the feedbacks among chemical weathering, rock strength and erosion rate. Second, we present reach-scale field data demonstrating interactions among chemical weathering, rock strength, abrasion, and channel morphology. Across an extreme rainfall gradient on Kohala Peninsula, Hawai‘i, we demonstrate that bedrock chemical weathering leads to the development of significant asymmetries in rock strength across features that are exposed to abrasion. Using a type-N Schmidt hammer, we measured the in-situ rock strength across 23 morphologic features of bedrock exposed in the stream beds of rivers, and found that upstream faces are consistently stronger, by an average of 38%, than downstream faces. Measured rock strengths suggest that the erodibilty of downstream (lee) faces may be as much as 20 times higher than corresponding upstream faces where weaker weathered material is efficiently abraded away. The asymmetrical pattern of rock strength does not necessarily lead to strongly asymmetrical morphologies, because although sediment impacts may result in more erosion on the weaker downstream face, the frequency of abrasion wear is substantially less frequent. Although the physical evidence for the chemical weathering is more frequently removed from the upstream face, these results demonstrate that, particularly in regions with higher local rainfall and weathering rates, chemical weathering induced strength reduction is a specific mechanism by which climate influences bedrock river downcutting and also reach-scale morphologies. Further, these results stress the need for careful sampling methods of rock strength, as a lack of consideration for the spatial variabilities due to chemical weathering and erosion could significantly influence the interpretations of data.