RIVER RESPONSE TO NEOTECTONIC ACTIVITY IN THE U.S. IMPLICATIONS AND SIGNIFICANCE

THE EVIDENCE FOR NEOTECTONIC ACTIVITY WILL BE STUDIED THROUGH THE INVESTIGATION OF CHANGES IN STREAM CHANNEL MORPHOLOGY, REVIEW OF GEOLOGIC LITERATURE AND OIL COMPANY EXPLORATION LOGS, AND THE USE OF NATIONAL GEODETIC SURVEY FIRST ORDER RELEVELING DATA. THESE THREE DATA SOURCES WILL ALLOW CORROBORATION OF INTERPRETATIONS FROM INDEPENDENT SOURCES OF INFORMATION. PRIMARY OBJECTIVES OF THE PROPOSED STUDY ARE: 1) TO IDENTIFY STREAM AND/OR DRAINAGE BASIN MORPHOLOGY CASUALLY RELATED TO NEOTECTONIC ACTIVITY FOR A VARIETY OF RIVER TYPES. 2) TO PROVIDE MUTUALLY SUPPORTIVE GEOMORPHIC AND GEODETIC DATA TO ESTABLISH EVIDENCE OF CRUSTAL INSTABILITY. 3) TO ESTABLISH REGIONAL PATTERNS OF NEOTECTONIC ACTIVITY. 4) TO ESTABLISH RELATIONS BETWEEN SURFACE MORPHOLOGY AND SUBSURFACE STRUCTURES. 5) TO DETERMINE IF DIFFERENTIAL COMPACTION OF SEDIMENTS THATARE DRAPED OVER SUBSURFACE HIGHS HAVE EFFECTS ON SURFACE MORPHOLOGY SIMILAR TO THAT OF NEOTECTONICS. RESULTS OF THIS INVESTIGATION COULD LEAD TO AN EFFICIENT AND DEPENDABLE PROCEDURE FOR RECOGNITION AND QUANTIFICATION OF CRUSTAL INSTABILITY, AND FOR RECOGNITION OF OF GEOLOGIC STRUCTURE.