c h r i s t o p h e r r i l e y

c h r i s t o p h e r r i l e y

p h d r e s e a r c h

The Morphotectonics

of the Spanish Sierra Nevada.

a study using digital elevation modelling.

Christopher David Belfield Riley

April 1995

Submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

Imperial College, University of London.

Acknowledgements

Without the financial support of Conoco Plc. through Professor Richard Selley, none of this research would have been possible. For the faith, tolerance and patience of John McMahoan Moore I am most grateful, and to Dr. Joseph Cartwright I am equally indebted.

The staff of University College London, Photogrammetry and Geography Departments made it possible for me to make the DEMs, and to them I am also grateful; particularly; Helen Marshall, David Alison, James Pearson, Kevin Morris, Tony Cook and David Haydock who was tragically killed in January 1992.

During the course of the research I sought advice and help from a number of people. I would particularly like to thank Professor Claudio Vita-Finzi at UCL for his unending enthusiasm, encouragement and inspiration, Dr. Iain Stewart, (West London College) Drs. Carlos Sanz de Galdeano, Jesus Galdívar and Mario Chico-Olma, (University of Granada) Professor Denys Brunsden, (Kings College, London) Professor Douglas Shearman and Dr. John Cosgrove, (Imperial College, London).

The trials and tribulations though of day-to-day research are always shared most closely with family and friends without whom, I would have given up a long time ago. Particularly I am most grateful to Stephanie Riley, Encarnacion Vives, Stephane Vial, John Bradley, Andrew Williams, Jackie Houghton, Steve Bennett, Duncan Copp, Paul Seaman, Stephen Grant, Ronan Dowling and Robyn Dummer for advice, criticism, loyalty and patient friendships.

The seeds of discovery and wonder at the science of geology were first planted in me by my late father Andrew Riley. Alistair Wells encouraged me later and his continuing energy and enthusiasm for communicating the Earth Sciences is still an inspiration to me. The ideas and thoughts in this thesis owe their origins to both of them.

Finally during the long days locked away from geology in London, writing this thesis and pondering the implications of my observations I have looked to geomorphology in the glaciated peaks of Snowdonia, the coastal cliffs of Cornwall and Romania's remote Carpathian mountains for inspiration. There are undoubtedly parts of these places contained unseen within the following pages. I make no apologies for their influence on my thoughts

To my first science teacher

Andrew John Riley.

"When one looks south from Granada across the red towers of the Alhambra one sees a range of mountains known as the Sierra Nevada which have snow on them all the year round....But forget the Alhambra, forget the nightingales, and consider only the mountains. They are high enough to boast having small glaciers, and if you cross them you will come to a broad, hollow country, very broken and separated from the sea by a coastal range. It is this country , which until quite recently could only be explored on foot or mule-back, that is the subject of this book".

Gerald Brenan, "South from Granada", 1957.

Contents.

Chapter One - Introduction.

1.1 Introduction.......................................................................................... 2

1.2 Regional Geology and Tectonic Setting............................................. 6

1.3 Sierra Nevada...................................................................................... 12

1.3.1 The Nevado-Filábride Complex........................................................ 13

1.3.2 The Ballabona-Cucharón Complex................................................ 13

1.3.3 The Alpujárride Complex............................................................... 14

1.3.4 The Maláguide Complex................................................................ 15

1.4 The Intermontane Basins........................................................................ 16

1.4.1 Neogene Stratigraphy.........................................................................16

1.4.2 The Granada Basin.............................................................................18

1.4.3 The Guadix Basin............................................................................... 25

1.4.4 The Alpujárride Corridor - Ugiyar & Orgiva Basins..........................31

1.4.5 The Sorbas-Tabernas Basin.................................................................35

1.5 Tectonic History........................................................................................39

1.5.1 Palaeozoic - Triassic............................................................................ 40

1.5.2 Cretaceous - Tertiary...........................................................................40

1.5.3 Early Miocene, (Aquitanian - Burdigalian).............................................41

1.5.4 Middle Miocene, (Langhian - Serravallian)............................................43

1.5.5 Late Miocene, (Serravallian - Tortonian).............................................. 45

1.5.6 Messinian.............................................................................................47

1.5.7 Pliocene - Quaternary - Pleistocene -Holocene......................................47

1.6 Uplift history of the Sierra Nevada..............................................................54

1.7 Summary of tectonics relating to the geomorphology of the Sierra Nevada..57

1.8 Thesis Themes and Research Objectives.....................................................59

Download PDF of Chapter 1



Chapter Two - Digital Elevation Modelling	63
2.1 Introduction.......................................................................................	64
2.2 Data Souces and Capture ................................................................	67
2.1.1 Topographic Maps..............................................................	67
2.1.2 Metric Camera Photography..............................................	67

2.3 Generating a DEM..........................................................................	69
2.3.1 Digitising contours.............................................................	69
2.3.2 Creating a triangulation DEM...........................................	70
2.3.3 Stereo Matching.................................................................	73
2.4 DEM visualisations..........................................................................	78
2.5 Data Limitations...............................................................................	87
2.6 Software Limitations.........................................................................	89
2.7 Errors in DEMs.................................................................................	90
2.8 Calibration of DEMs.........................................................................	92
2.9 Summary............................................................................................	99
Chapter Three - Palaeoseismic Activity	101
3.1 Introduction........................................................................................	102
3.2 Data Sources......................................................................................	103
3.3 Data Processing.................................................................................	114
3.4 Discussion..........................................................................................	116
3.4.1 Time distribution..................................................................	116
3.4.2 Magnitude - Frequency Distribution....................................	122
3.4.3 Depth Distribution................................................................	125
3.4.4 Spatial Distribution...............................................................	128
3.4.5 Seismotectonic Interpretation...............................................	133
3.5 Summary & Conclusions.....................................................................	139
Chapter Four - A Field Study of the
Mountain Front Fault Segment Geomorphology.	141
4.1 Introduction..........................................................................................	142
4.2 Segmentation of the mountain fronts..................................................	146
4.3 The Sierra Nevada Mountain Front Segments....................................	153
4.3.1 Tectonic Activity Class 1 and 2 segments...............................	153
4.3.2 Tectonic Activity Class 3 Segments........................................	192
4.4 Discussion............................................................................................	206
4.4.1 Tectonic Regime......................................................................	206
4.4.2 Tectonic evolution...................................................................	207
4.5 Conclusions & Summary......................................................................	209

Chapter Five - Erosional Morphotectonics	212
5.1 Introduction............................................................................................	213
5.2 Fault Scarp Degradation........................................................................	215
5.2.1 Field Profiling & Morphometry...............................................	217
5.2.2 Dating Fault Scarps.................................................................	219
5.2.3 Statistical Separation of Degraded & Fresh Scarps................	224
5.2.4 Assessment of Scarp Degradation from DEM profiles............	226
5.2.5 Results......................................................................................	245
5.3 Tectonic Pediments................................................................................	230
5.3.1 Pediment Appearance on DEMs..............................................	232
5.3.2 Local Pediment Correlation.....................................................	235
5.3.3 Regional Pediment Correlation................................................	240
5.3.4 Heights of Major Pediments.....................................................	243
5.4 Hypsometric Analysis..............................................................................	251
5.4.1 Hypsometric Curves from DEMs...............................................	251
5.4.2 Results........................................................................................	252
5.5 Embayment Dimensions..........................................................................	258
5.5.1 Embayment Widths....................................................................	258
5.5.2 River Retreat Rates (R) & Time since uplift (T).........................	261
5.5.3 Pediment Ages...........................................................................	265
5.5.4 Uplift Rates................................................................................	267
5.5.5 Uplift Patterns...........................................................................	269
5.6 Ridge Morphology...................................................................................	272
5.7 Summary & Conclusions..........................................................................	275
5.8 Discussion.................................................................................................	280

Chapter Six - Tectonics and Drainage	288
6.1 Introduction...............................................................................................	289
6.1.1 General Drainage Patterns in the Study Area............................	292
6.1.2 Factors which shape drainage....................................................	295
6.2 Stream Profiles..........................................................................................	300
6.2.1 Concavity Index..........................................................................	304
6.2.2 Stream Gradient Index................................................................	309
6.3 Drainage Valley Morphology...................................................................	316
6.3.1 Valley floor to Valley Height ratio..............................................	316
6.3.2 River terraces and valley walls...................................................	324
6.4 Drainage Networks...................................................................................	327
6.4.1 Asymmetry Index.........................................................................	332
6.4.2 Bifurcation Ratio..........................................................................	332
6.4.3 Drainage Density..........................................................................	335
6.4.4 Frequency Distribution of stream lengths....................................	337
6.5 Drainage Basin Shape................................................................................	340
6.5.1 Circularity Ratio...........................................................................	344
6.5.2 Elongation Ratio...........................................................................	344
6.5.3 Relief Ratio....................................................................................	345
6.6 Drainage Crossing the Mountain front......................................................	348
6.6.1 The Wallace Ratio..........................................................................	348
6.6.2 Mountain Front Sinuosity Index....................................................	352
6.7 Palaeodrainage.............................................................................................	354
6.8 Strike-slip tectonics and drainage displacement.........................................	357
6.9 Drainage and Uplift in the Sierra Nevada...................................................	361
6.10 Summary and Conclusions..........................................................................	370
6.11 Discussion....................................................................................................	374

Chapter Seven - Tectonics and Deposition	382
7.1 Introduction....................................................................................................	383
7.1.1 Fan Measurements..........................................................................	384
7.1.2 The Study Area................................................................................	384
7.2 Qualitative observations of Fans.................................................................	395
7.2.1 Fan segmentation & entrenchment................................................	395
7.2.2 Fan descriptions.............................................................................	400
7.2.3 Climatic affects on fan development.............................................	404
7.2.4 Soil development............................................................................	409
7.3 Fan Slope......................................................................................................	410
7.3.1 The affect of tectonics...................................................................	411
7.3.2 The affect of catchment characteristics........................................	420
7.4 Fan Area.......................................................................................................	427
7.5 Fan Shape.....................................................................................................	432
7.6 Summary.......................................................................................................	438
7.7 Discussion.....................................................................................................	440

Chapter Eight - Summary and Conclusions,
Analysis of Geomorphological Data.	444
8.1 Introduction...................................................................................................	445
8.2 Summary & Conclusions..............................................................................	447
8.3 Discussion.....................................................................................................	453
8.3.1 - The Question of Climate.............................................................	453
8.3.2 - Patterns and Chronology of Uplift - geomorphological evolution	453
8.3.3 - Tectonic Activity Classes based on geomorphology...................	466
8.3.4 - Drainage Response to Tectonics.................................................	469
8.3.5 - A Mechanism for Uplift..............................................................	470
(i) Pop-up and pull apart strike slip faulting............................	472
(ii) Collision - obduction and changing 2 directions..............	474
(iii) Migrating Plutons.................................................................	477
8.4 Thesis aims and objectives answered..........................................................	482
8.5 Further Investigations..................................................................................	484
References..........................................................................................................	486
Appendix 1.	i
Part 1. List of Fax directories used in running lites2 software	i
Part 2. Command list for digitising contours using lites2.	i
Part 3. Essential command listing for Triangultion of the DEM.	iii
Part 4. Essential commands for visualising the DEM.	iii
Part 5. Stereo-matching procedure.	v
Part 6. Viewing the stereo-matched model using hips on the SUNs.	viii
Part 7. Additional commands	viii
Appendix 2a - Fortran programmes used to sort ISC earthquake data.	xi
Appendix 2b - Historical Earthquake Events in Southern Spain.	xiv
Appendix 3a - GWBASIC programme to calculate the optimum weights for crest, height, width & retreat for 2 fault populations.	xix
Appendix 3b - GWBASIC programme to calculate DEM coordinates from map coordinates of field profiles.	xxii
Appendix 4 - Personal Communication from Carlos Sanz de Galdeano.	xxiii
Appendix 5 - Stream profiles derived from regional 1:50,000 DEMs	xxiv
Appendix 6 - Valley morphologies derived from 1:50,000 DEMs	xxxviii

List of Figures


1.1	Location map of the Spanish Sierra Nevada.................................................	7
1.2a	1:25,000 MTNE topographic map sheets covering the Sierra Nevada..........	9
1.2b	1:50,000 IGME geological map sheets covering the same area.....................	9
1.3	The regional geology of the Sierra Nevada...................................................	10
1.4	Subdivisions of the Neogene sedimentary basins..........................................	19
1.5a	Geography and geology of the Granada Basin.............................................	20
1.5b	Geological sections across the Granada Basin.............................................	21
1.6a	Geography and geology of the Guadix Basin...............................................	26
1.6b	Geological sections across the Guadix Basin...............................................	27
1.7a	Geography and geology of the Alpujárride Corridor...................................	32
1.8a	Geography and geology of the western end of the Sorbas-Tabernas basin...	36
2.1	The TIN stage in the creation of a DEM.....................................................	72
2.2	The ALSC matching algorithm in progress..................................................	76
2.3	The unmatched holes in the DEM of the Sierra Nevada..............................	79
2.4	A threshold slope map of the Sierra Elvira DEM........................................	80
2.5	A density sliced DEM...............................................................................	81
2.6a	A drainage network extracted from a DEM...............................................	83
2.6b	A map of ridges extracted in the same way................................................	83
2.7	Eight lambertian hill shaded views of the Nigüelas DEM.............................	85
2.8a	A wire frame perspective view of the Nigüelas model................................	86
2.8b	A draped Lambertian hill shaded view of the same model..........................	86
2.9a	An elevation histogram of the Nigüelas model............................................	88
2.9b	A cumulative frequency plot of DEM height data (hypsometric curve)........	88
2.10	Detecting erroneous contours in DEMs.....................................................	91
2.11	Recontoured DEMs of different sampling density......................................	95
2.12	Histograms of low and high data density models.......................................	96
2.13	Histograms and profiles of the models built to test for interpolation noise...	97
2.14	DEMs of the Sierra Elvira area, at varying pixel resolutions.......................	98
3.1	5° square block of earthquake hypocentre plots for the study area 1900-90.	104
3.2	Isoseismal map of the Granada earthquake - 22-09-1522........................	109
3.3	Isoseismal map of the Malaga earthquake - 09-10-1680..........................	110
3.4	Isoseismal map of the Sierra Nevada earthquake - 13-01-1804...............	110
3.5	Isoseismal map of the Almerial-Motril earthquake 25-08-1804................	111
3.6	Isoseismal map of the Alhama de Granada earthquake 25-12-1884.........	112
3.7	Isoseismal map of the Atarfe earthquake 19-04-1956.............................	113
3.8	All historical earthquakes from 1431 to 1990 around the Sierra Nevada..	115
3.9	Numbers of earthquakes around the Sierra Nevada each year 1431-1990.	117
3.10	Average recurrence period vs magnitude for S.N. earthquakes................	119
3.11	Maximum yearly magnitude for earthquakes of the S.N. years 1900-1990.	121
3.12	Plots of earthquake which happened within a few days of each other.......	123
3.13	Frequency vs magnitude plot for the earthquakes around the S.N............	126
3.14	Cross sections showing the shallow seismic activity across the Betics.......	127
3.15	Historical hypocentres for S.N. earthquakes 1400-1990.........................	129
3.16	Distributions of epicentres with time for the S.N......................................	132
3.17	Eleven focal mechanisms for faults surrounding the S.N...........................	134
3.18	Seismotectonic framework for southern Spain.........................................	138
4.1	The tectonic boundaries & internal structure of the Sierra Nevada............	143
4.2	Geometric and structural criteria for segmentation of the mountain front....	147
4.3	The proposed segmentation of the Sierra Nevada mountain front.............	149
4.4	Güejar Sierra - Quentar fault segments....................................................	154
4.5	Monachil Güejar Sierra and Zubia - Monachil segments..........................	156
4.6	Sequential development of the Zubia fan from the Middle Miocene..........	163
4.7	Dilar, Lomas de Padul & Padul segments................................................	164
4.8	Durcal, Nigüelas and Acequis - Tablate segments....................................	174
4.9	The Orgiva-Almegijar, Almegijar-Notaez & Castaras-Nieles-Timar segments	181
4.10	The Timar-Narila (Cadiar) segment.........................................................	189
4.11	The La Peza segment..............................................................................	191
4.12	The Yator-Ugijar and Ugijar-Cherin segments.........................................	197
4.13	The Alcolea-Laujar de Andarax segment.................................................	198
4.14	The Almocita-Beires segment..................................................................	202
5.1a	Degradation of carbonate bedrock scarps...............................................	216
5.1b	Crest width, retreat and height used in this study......................................	218
5.2	The Sierra Elvira DEM study..................................................................	221
5.3	Fault scarp degradation in the Sierra Elvira horst block............................	225
5.4	Fault scarp degradation around the Sierra Nevada mountain front............	229
5.5	Two dimensional model showing the balance between uplift and degradation.	233
5.6	Slope map of the Sierra Nevada, showing slopes of between 35-40°......	234
5.7	Two DEMs of the western mountain front & their histograms..................	236
5.8	Profiles across the Dilar, Padul and Nigüelas-Durcal mountain fronts.......	239
5.9	The regional 1:50,000 DEM divided into fourteen separate models.........	241
5.10	Cartoon explaining the identification of pediments from ridge plots...........	244
5.11	Ridge profiles above each fault segment..................................................	246
5.12	Pediment tracing and correlation around the mountain block....................	249
5.13a	Hypsometric curves plotted for Step DEM, under different sized classes..	253
5.13b	Hypsometric curves of Sierra Elvira DEMs of different pixel resolution.....	254
5.13c	Hypsometric curves of DEMs of part of the Nigüelas mountain front........	255
5.14	Hypsometric curve of the regional 1:50,000 Sierra Nevada DEM............	256
5.15	Flagged contour showing river embayments into pediment II....................	260
5.16	The main drainage channels of the Sierra Nevada....................................	263
5.17a	The relationship of drainage basin length to river retreat rate....................	264
5.17b	Catchment corrected river retreat rates...................................................	264
5.18a	Variation in Plio-Quaternary and Miocene uplift rates along the front.......	270
5.18b	Relationship between relief rates and uplift rates along the mountain front.	270
5.19	Plot of height values along the mountain ridge..........................................	273
6.1	Main drainage channels perpendicular to the mountain front.....................	291
6.2	A reconstruction of the antecedent drainage prior to uplift........................	294
6.3	The Manning equation............................................................................	296
6.4	An equilibrium concave river profile........................................................	298
6.5	Multiple uplift episodes preserved in river profiles....................................	302
6.6	Calculation of the concavity index...........................................................	305
6.7	Correlation between stream length and concavity index - an explanation...	307
6.8	The relationship between MFSI and stream concavity..............................	308
6.9	Contour map of stream gradient index around the mountain block.............	313
6.10	The importance of distance weighting for stream gradient calculations........	314
6.11	Valley floor width: valley height ratio.........................................................	317
6.12	Spatial distribution of Vf ratios (Vfa, Vfb, Vfc).........................................	321
6.13	The relationship of late Miocene uplift rate and valley morphology.............	325
6.14	The formation of strath terraces, during tectonic quiescence.......................	326
6.15	The spatial distribution of basin asymmetry................................................	333
6.16	The spatial distribution of stream bifurcation ratios.....................................	334
6.17	The spatial distribution of drainage density.................................................	336
6.18	Distribution of first order channel lengths....................................................	338
6.19	The relationship between MFSI and average first order channel lengths......	339
6.20	The areas of the individual drainage basins.................................................	341
6.21	Calculation of basin shape.........................................................................	343
6.22	The relationship of elongation ratio and circularity ratio...............................	346
6.23	Spatial distribution of elongation, circularity and relief ratios........................	347
6.24	The relationship of drainage basin area to length.........................................	349
6.25	Calculations of Wallace Ratio and MFSI....................................................	351
6.26	Lambertian shaded views of palaeodrainage channels..................................	355
6.27	Possible mechanisms for deflection of the river Trevelez..............................	359
6.28	Variations of drainage density & bifurcation ratio along the mountain front...	365
6.29	A plot of the variations of catchment corrected river retreat rates................	367
6.30	A plot of the variation of basin area and length compared to relief...............	368
6.31a	A plot of the variation of reach 5 stream gradient and valley morphology.....	369
6.31b	A plot of the variation of reach 5 gradient and Late Miocene uplift rate........	369
6.32	Tilt of continuous pediments in degrees.......................................................	377
6.33a	Tilt directions and amounts suggested by variations in Late Miocene uplift....	379
6.33b	Tilt directions and amounts suggested by variations in Plio-Pliestocene uplift.	380
7.1	The location of alluvial fans on the Sierra Nevada........................................	386
7.2	Characteristics of each fan system...............................................................	387
7.3	Fan evolution.............................................................................................	396
7.4	Longitudinal and radial plots across Sierra Nevada fans..............................	414
7.5	The relationship of fan area to fan slope......................................................	423
7.6a	A plot of fan slope against basin ruggedness for the Sierra Nevada.............	426
7.6b	A plot of drainage basin area (Ad) against fan slope (Sf).............................	426
7.7	A plot of fan area against drainage basin area..............................................	431
7.8	The equilibrium fan model of Troeh (1965).................................................	433
7.9	Finding point P - a theoretical point on the fan surface.................................	433
7.10	Plots of the theoretical and true height values across the fan.........................	437
7.11	A summary of the characteristics of fan morphology indicative of uplift.........	442
8.1	A summary of the evidence of the data presented in this thesis.....................	446
8.2a	Three stage process suggested to generate a 1 isostatic uplift.....................	456
8.2b	Periods of major tectonic quiescence..........................................................	458
8.3	Comparison of the classic basin and range style topography with the SN......	471
8.4	Pop-up and pull-apart model for the formation of the Sierra Nevada...........	473
8.5	Evolving 2 compression directions as a mechanism for uplift.......................	475
8.6	Migrating igneous plutons as a mechanism for uplift.....................................	478

List of Plates


1.1	Landsat MSS image of the field area.............................................................	8
1.2	The Granada Basin, viewed from Sierra Elvira...............................................	22
1.3	The Tabernas Basin, viewed from the eastern tail of the Sierra Nevada..........	37
4.1	The Monachil - Güejar Sierra fault segment...................................................	157
4.2	The Monachil - Güejar Sierra fault segment surface - oblique slip slikensides.	158
4.3	Zubia - Monachil fault segment viewed from Zubia fan..................................	160
4.4	The upper parts of the Zubia - Monachil fan are now being eroded...............	161
4.5	Dilar fault segment characterised to the south by faceted spurs......................	165
4.6	Dilar fault segment drag of Miocene hanging wall against the fault plane........	167
4.7	Remnant terraces in the River Dilar canyon..................................................	168
4.8	Prominent steps in a river crossing the Dilar fault segment............................	169
4.9	Large pluck marks and fissures are visible in the Dilar fault plane.................	170
4.10	Padul fault segment, with badly pitted and weathered fault breccia...............	172
4.11	The unconformity in the Quaternary fan material - Durcal - Nigüelas segment	175
4.12	The gross morphology of the Durcal - Nigüelas fault segment......................	177
4.13	Large pediment above the Durcal - Nigüelas segment.................................	179
4.14	The Orgiva-Almegijar segment..................................................................	182
4.15	The Almegijar-Notaez segment.................................................................	184
4.16	Castaras-Nieles-Timar segment.................................................................	185
4.17	Strike slip and slickenside marks on the Castaras-Nieles-Timar segment....	186
4.18	The Castaras-Nieles-Timar segment showing vertical slikensides...............	188
4.19	The Cadiar end of the Timar-Narila segment.............................................	190
4.20	The Orgiva-Almegijar segment..................................................................	193
4.21	The eastern extreme of the Orgiva-Almegijar segment................................	194
4.22	The Yator segment....................................................................................	196
4.23	The Alcolea-Laujar segment.....................................................................	199
4.24	The Almocita-Beires segment...................................................................	201
4.25	The Lomas de Padul segment...................................................................	204
4.26	Lomas de Padul.......................................................................................	205
5.1a	Western boundary faults - Sierra Elvira.....................................................	222
5.1b	Eastern boundary faults - Sierra Elvira......................................................	223
5.2	Oblique aerial view of pediment II - Durcal-Nigüelas mountain front.........	237
6.1	The importance of lithology in controlling valley morphology.....................	319
6.2	The asymmetry of the river Trevelez........................................................	330
6.3	The abandoned river channel running across the Lomas de Padul..............	356

List of Tables


1.1	Geological history of the Sierra Nevada and surrounding basins..................	50
2.1	The DEMs created for morphotectonic studies...........................................	77
2.2	the test DEMs created for calibrating the interpolation software..................	93
3.1	The historical development of Spain's earthquake catalogue.......................	105
3.2	A summary of the historical earthquakes around the Sierra Nevada...........	109
3.3	Average recurrence period for earthquakes of varying intensity S.N..........	118
3.4	Significance of b values magnitude-frequency measurements.....................	124
4.1	Summary of the characteristics of the mountain front segments of the S.N..	150
5.1	Comparison of morphoseismic indices calculated from field & DEM profiles	227
5.2	Morphoseismic indices for the mountain front fault segments.....................	228
5.3	Multivariate correlation analysis of histograms of two test DEMs...............	240
5.4	Cross multivariate correlation between histograms of individual DEMs.......	242
5.5	Variation in height of the five main pediments.............................................	245
5.6	The integrals of hypsometric curves for individual fault segments.................	257
5.7	Embayment widths in km for the five major pediments................................	259
5.8	Retreat rates for the Sierra Nevada drainage systems.................................	265
5.9	Ages of the five major pediments on the slopes of the Sierra Nevada..........	267
5.10	Uplift rates m/K year for Plio-Quaternary and Late Miocene periods.........	269
6.1	Concavity Index for the Sierra Nevada drainage streams............................	309
6.2	Stream profile analysis - SGI and Relief ratio.............................................	312
6.3	Vf:Vh ratios for the S.N. drainage channels................................................	322
6.4	Horton's drainage network analysis for the S.N. channels...........................	331
6.5	Regional drainage characteristics for different sectors of the Sierra Nevada.	342
6.6	Drainage basin area and shape...................................................................	345
6.7	Variation in Wallace ratio around the mountain front...................................	352
6.8	The variation in sinuosity index around the mountain front............................	353
6.9	Multivariate correlation table relating morphotectonic indices to uplift rates.	362
6.10	Summary of drainage basin characteristics..................................................	372
7.1	Summary of the characteristics of alluvial fans derived from the S. Nevada..	394
7.2	Fan characteristics and the tectonic conditions that create them...................	399
7.3	Alluvial fan calcrete horizon characteristics..................................................	409
7.4	The tectonic regime inferred from longitudinal profiles of fan slope...............	411
7.5	Fan slope and parent drainage basin characteristics.....................................	413
7.6	Relationship of catchment morphology to fan slope......................................	422
7.7	Drainage catchment areas and their fan areas...............................................	429
7.8	Linear regression analysis for drainage basin area and fan area relationships..	429
7.9	values of the constants S, L and P for the Sierra Nevada fans......................	435
8.1	Chronology of Mt.front behaviour & the required compression directions....	457
8.2	The geomorphological evolution of the Spanish Sierra Nevada....................	462
8.3	TACs suggested for the Sierra Nevada mountain front segments.................	466