The persistence of dendritic drainage patterns implies that rivers reorganize after a tectonic perturbation, preserving no long-term record of that tectonic event. Numerical simulations of the evolution of drainage patterns in the Southern Alps, New Zealand, however, reveal rivers that resist reorganization and thus preserve a record of plate tectonic strain over 10 million years.
- Sébastien Castelltort
- Liran Goren
- Jean Braun
