Inversion of relief — a component of landscape evolution

Inversion of relief occurs when materials on valley floors are, or become, more resistant to erosion than the adjacent valley slopes. As erosion proceeds, the valley floor becomes a ridge bounded by newly formed valleys on each side. Areas of lava flows contain many examples of inversion of relief, but it is also common in areas of duricrusts. Inversion of relief is so widespread in some areas that it should be regarded as a general component in a model of landscape evolution. ion of relief has some important implications. Drainage lines will shift significantly over time. Slope-soil relationships (catenas) have to be reassessed, because the regolith on the upper part of a hill slope may have developed under very different conditions from those existing at present. The resulting catena is not a simple expression of soils and response to landscape position. This also has important implications for geochemistry. Where present day ridge tops were once valley floors, geochemical signatures will reflect lateral water movement in the old landscape rather than simple in situ weathering and vertical redistribution in the present landscape. y, inversion of relief can produce erosion surfaces of very low relief that cannot be termed peneplains, pediplains or etchplains because they have a very different genesis. This underlines the importance of determining the complexities of landscape evolution before such genetic terms are applied to any landscape.