Fellow Story

Sklar finds local climate affects river-cutting through chemical weathering

Fellow(s): Leonard Sklar
Topic(s): Water Resources

Local differences in rainfall can be a key factor in how a river erodes its riverbed, altering the chemical weathering and weakening of riverbed rock, according to a new study published in the journal Nature.

The finding sounds simple enough, but it upends long-held ideas about how river channels evolve and how chemical weathering impacts the Earth's surface, said San Francisco State University Professor of Earth and Climate Sciences Leonard Sklar, a senior member of the study team.

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