The impact of active tectonics on rivers is quite diverse and can show up in a variety of ways. Here are some key ways in which active tectonics affect river channels:
- Uplift and subsidence
- Faulting and river course offset/displacement
- Creation of topographic barriers
- Subsidence and river deltas
- Seismic activity and riverbank instability
- Tectonic Uplift
- Terraces
- Tectonic Controls on drainage patterns
- Tectonic activity and river incision/beheading
- Tectonic influence on sediment transport
and maybe others.
Tectonic faults are pathways for the migration of lithosphere fluids (in zones of tectonic faults the groundwater level is higher).
60% of the river's flow consists of groundwater. There are even more in your geographic area. Look at the Nile River. The river flows through the desert for 6000 km. The volume of its flow at the mouth is less than in the delta. The reason is underground water exchange. In active faults, fluid release is maximum. For this reason, in areas with flat topography without slope, river channels are straight and coincide with active faults.
In the modern geological era, the most active faults are directed along meridians and parallels.
Tectonic blocks have a size of 140x140; 70x70; 35x35 km.
They have azimuths (degrees) 0, 30, 45, 62, 77.
Look at a map of Iraq.
Dear Mrs. Darweesh,
here are the most recent papers of mine on morphotectonic and morphoclimatic impacts on the longitudinal and cross sectional profiles of drainage systems from the Late Cretaceous to the Holocene.
All of them are available open access or on request on the RG server, peer-reviewed in international journals and endowed with lots of literature for your disposal:
DILL, H.G., BUZATU, A., BALABAN, S.-I. and RÜSENBERG, K. A. (2023) A mineralogical-geomorphological terrain analysis of hotspot volcanic islands -The missing link between carbonatite- and pegmatite Nb-F-Zr-Li-Be-bearing REE deposits and new tools for their exploration (Canary Islands Archipelago, Spain).- Ore Geology Reviews: 163, 105702 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oregeorev.2023.105702
DILL, H.G., BALABAN, S.-I., FÜSSL, M., PÖLLMANN, H.,, BUZATU, A., (2022) Morphostratigraphy of landform series from the Late Cretaceous to the Quaternary. The “3 + 1” model of the quadripartite watershed system at the NW edge of the Bohemian Massif.- Geomorphology: 419, 108489 (41 pp).
DILL, H.G., BUZATU, A., KLEYER, C., BALABAN, S.-I., PÖLLMANN, H., and FÜSSL, M. (2022) A Natural GMS Laboratory (Granulometry-Morphometry- Situmetry): Geomorphological-Sedimentological-Mineralogical Terrain Analysis
Linked to Coarse-Grained Siliciclastic Sediments at the Basement-Foreland Boundary (SE Germany).- Minerals: 12, 1- 43.
DILL, H.G., BUZATU, A., KLEYER, C., BALABAN, S.-I., PÖLLMANN, H., and FÜSSL, M. (2022) A composite terrain-and provenance analysis tied to specific times of a basement-foreland drainage system and its gravel-sand-clay deposits, (Bohemian Massif, SE Germany).- Sedimentary Geology: 441, 106266 (30 pp)
DILL, H.G. (2022) Trends and composition – A sedimentological-chemical-mineralogical approach to constrain the origin of Quaternary deposits and landforms - From the review to the manual.- Geosciences: 1497156 , 59 pp.
DILL, H.G., BALABAN, S.-I., BUZATU, A., BORNEMANN, A., and TECHMER, A. (2021) The Quaternary volcanogenic landscape and volcaniclastic sediments of the Netherlands Antilles - markers for an in-active volcanic arc.- International Journal of Earth Sciences: 111, 149-172.
DILL, H.G., BUZATU, A., and BALABAN, S.-I. (2021) Straight to Low-Sinuosity Drainage Systems in a Variscan-Type Orogen—Constraints from Tectonics, Lithology and Climate.- Minerals: 2021, 11, 933. https://doi.org/10.3390/min11090933, 58 pp
DILL, H.G., BUZATU A., BALABAN S.-I. , UFER K., TECHMER A. SCHEDLINSKY, W., and FÜSSL M., (2020) The transition of very coarse-grained meandering to straight fluvial drainage systems in a tectonized foreland-basement landscape during the Holocene (SE Germany) – A joint geomorphological-geological study.- Geomorphology 370: 107364.
DILL, H.G., BUZATU A., BALABAN S.-I. , UFER K., GÓMEZ TAPIAS J., BÎRGĂOANU D. and CRAMER T. (2020) The “badland trilogy” of the Desierto de la Tatacoa, Upper Magdalena Valley, Colombia, a result of geodynamics and climate: With a review of badland landscapes.- Catena 194: 1-20.
DILL, H.G. , KAUFHOLD, S., TECHMER, A. , BARITZ, R., and MOUSSADEK, R. (2019) A joint study in geomorphology, pedology and sedimentology of a Mesoeuropean landscape in the Meseta and Atlas Foreland (NW Morocco). A function of parent lithology, geodynamics and climate.- Journal of African Earth Sciences 158: 103531
With kind regards
HGD