Landscape Evolution

Rivers carve, hillslopes creep and slide, tectonics pushes the crust up and sediment piles up in lakes and seas. Everything runs live on a 192 × 192 grid (48 × 48 km).

Time speed 40 kyr/s

Presets

Tectonics & climate

Uplift rate Uplift pattern Rainfall Sea level / base level

Erosion & transport

River erodibility K Area exponent m Slope exponent n Hillslope diffusivity Landslide threshold angle Sediment erodibility × Sediment transport capacity Deposition tendency

Tools (drag on the map)

Brush radius Brush strength

Display

Map layer

Overlays Rivers Divides Section line Landslides

River threshold Vertical exaggeration (3D) 3D azimuth 3D tilt Grid resolution

Flood storm

Rain intensity Storm duration Storm radius Runoff coefficient Flood playback

How it works

River incision uses the stream-power law E = K A^m Sⁿ, solved implicitly (Braun & Willett) from the outlets upstream, so it stays stable for any time step. Flow is routed with D8 after priority-flood depression filling; filled depressions become lakes. Hillslopes creep by linear diffusion and fail where slopes exceed the landslide threshold. Sediment eroded upstream is carried downstream; it is dropped where transport capacity drops (fans, floodplains), in lakes and in the sea (deltas). Floods use an inertial shallow-water solver (Manning friction) on the current terrain.

Domain edges are open outlets held at sea level. Time is model time; the simulation is conceptual and not calibrated to a real place.