BTW, I would like to steer you towards that last one, because it contains a topic I’ve been meaning to bring up anyway. And is smaller in scope: Plateaus and planes, particularly in relation to this topic of erosion rates.
Consider these two planation surfaces:
- Kangaroo Island off the southern Australian coast. Covers an area of about 87 by 37 miles and is extremely flat. The surface is estimated to be at least 160 million years old
- The flat to undulating plateau of western Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia, dated at over 100 million years old.
I’m finding it challenging that these remained flat for over 100 million years, when entire continent worth of sediment is eroded within 10-50 million years.
So if you don’t mind, I’d like to focus on that topic.