Landscape evolution, erosion, and geological preservation

Last updated: August 2026

About

Landscapes record the competition between uplift, subsidence, erosion, sediment transport, and deposition. These processes determine how geological records are exposed, removed, buried, or preserved. They also influence coastal erosion, sediment delivery to the ocean, and the degree to which mineral systems remain concealed beneath younger cover.

This project will develop data-informed landscape-evolution models for Australia. It will combine present-day topography with sedimentation histories, thermochronology, borehole data, and other geological constraints to reconstruct Cenozoic uplift, subsidence, erosion, and sediment routing. Adjoint methods will allow otherwise poorly constrained model parameters to be inferred efficiently.

Research questions

• How have uplift, subsidence, erosion, and sediment transport shaped the Australian landscape through time?
• Which observations constrain past topography and denudation most strongly?
• How do uncertainty in surface-process parameters and mantle-driven dynamic topography affect the reconstruction?

Methods and data

Projects can implement landscape-evolution models within G-ADOPT and use adjoint optimisation, topography, sediment volumes, stratigraphic records, thermochronology, and denudation histories. Results can be compared with mantle-convection predictions of dynamic topography.

Possible projects

Possible directions include implementing an adjoint landscape model, reconstructing a selected Australian region, testing coastal-erosion scenarios, or evaluating how erosion and cover alter the preservation of geological and mineral records.

Essential background

Useful preparation includes Earth science, geomorphology, geology, mathematics, physics, programming, or data analysis. Experience with inverse methods is useful but not required.