Dr. Helen Willemien Dow (maiden name: Beeson)

Although equilibrium has long been considered the attractor state for landscapes, the time required to reach equilibrium or even the possibility of reaching equilibrium is still debated. To test the hypothesis that river basin dynamics can protract time to steady-state we map and interpret disequilibrium in river basins draining the Paleozoic-aged Ozark Dome. Using 10Be-based catchment-averaged denudation rates, topographic analysis, and analysis of the basin topology and geometry, including its area-channel length scaling relationship, we show that an ancient postorogenic dome on the North American Craton, the Ozark Dome, is not in a state of equilibrium. Aspects of the morphology of the Ozarks reflect persistent river basin dynamics and that, although the fluvial network in the Ozarks is in a quasi-equilibrium state, it will likely never achieve steady state conditions owing to the disparity in timescales between the rate of geometric adjustment in slowly eroding landscapes and comparatively rapid fluvial response times.