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Climate, tectonics and time combine to create powerful forces that craft the face of our planet. Add the gradual sculpting of the Earth鈥檚 surface by rivers and what to us seems solid as rock is constantly changing.

However, our understanding of this dynamic process has at best been patchy.

Scientists today have published new research revealing a detailed and dynamic model of the Earth鈥檚 surface over the past 100 million years.听

Working with scientists in France, University of Sydney geoscientists have published this new model in the prestigious journal .

For the first time, it provides a high-resolution understanding of how today鈥檚 geophysical landscapes were created and how millions of tonnes of sediment have flowed to the oceans.

Lead author Dr Tristan Salles from the University of Sydney School of Geosciences, said: 鈥淭o predict the future, we must understand the past. But our geological models have only provided a fragmented understanding of how our planet鈥檚 recent physical features formed.

鈥淚f you look for a continuous model of the interplay between river basins, global-scale erosion and sediment deposition at high resolution for the past 100 million years, it just doesn鈥檛 exist.

鈥淪o, this is a big advance. It鈥檚 not only a tool to help us investigate the past but will help scientists understand and predict the future, as well.鈥澛�

Using a framework incorporating geodynamics, tectonic and climatic forces with surface processes, the scientific team has presented a new dynamic model of the past 100 million years at high resolution (down to 10 kilometres), broken into frames of a million years.

Second author聽听蹿谤辞尘听聽in Grenoble, France, said: 鈥淭his unprecedented high-resolution model of Earth鈥檚 recent past will equip geoscientists with a more complete and dynamic understanding of the Earth鈥檚 surface.

鈥淐ritically, it captures the dynamics of sediment transfer from the land to oceans in a way we have not previously been able to.鈥�

Dr Salles said that understanding the flow of terrestrial sediment to marine environments is vital to comprehend present-day ocean chemistry.

鈥淕iven that ocean chemistry is changing rapidly due to human-induced climate change, having a more complete picture can assist our understanding of marine environments,鈥� he said.

The model will allow scientists to test different theories as to how the Earth鈥檚 surface will respond to changing climate and tectonic forces.

Further, the research provides an improved model to understand how the transportation of Earth sediment regulates the planet鈥檚 carbon cycle over millions of years.

鈥淥ur findings will provide a dynamic and detailed background for scientists in other fields to prepare and test hypotheses, such as in biochemical cycles or in biological evolution.鈥澛�

Authors Dr Salles, Dr Claire Mallard and PhD student Beatriz Hadler Boggiani are members of the聽聽and Associate Professor Patrice Rey and Dr Sabin Zahirovic are part of the聽. Both groups are in the School of Geosciences at the University of Sydney.

The research was undertaken in collaboration with French geoscientists from CNRS, France, Universit茅 Lyon and ENS Paris.

Declaration

This research was supported by聽聽of the Australian Government and the聽Artemis Computer聽at the University of Sydney. Researchers received funding from the Australian Research Council through the聽.听