ASSESSMENT OF GEOMORPHIC PROCESSES AND ACTIVE TECTONICS IN CON VOI MOUNTAIN RANGE AREA (NORTHERN VIETNAM) USING THE HYPSOMETRIC CURVE ANALYSIS METHOD

Abstract

the Day Nui Con Voi (DNCV) area of Vietnam. For this purpose, a spatial database was collected and constructed, including DEM (Digital Elevation Model) and a geological map. The hypsometric curve (HC) analysis method and its statistical moments were adopted to use for the assessment. These methods have been widely used for the assessment of geomorphic processes and active tectonics in many areas in the world showing promising results. A total of 44 sub-basins of the Red River and the Chay river were analyzed. The result shows that 3 curve-types such as "straight- shape", "S- shape", and concave were found; with the concave curve being the dominant and widely distributed in the northeast side and in the south of the southwestern side of the study area. The hypsometric integral (HI) values are rather small with the largest value is 0.37 and the smallest one is 0.128. Other statistical moments of the hypsometric curve, i.e. skew (SK), kurtosis (KUR), and the density function (density skew - DSK and density kurtosis-DKUR) show great values, which increased in the south direction of the area study. Accordingly, recent active tectonics (uplift-lower) in the study area is generally weak; however, they are also not completely homogeneous and can be distinguished by different levels. The southwestern side is being lifted higher than the northeastern side. The northern part is being lifted larger than the southern part. In the region, the uplift activities were increased gradually in the Pliocene-Quaternary and could have stopped at certain time in the past. The current geomorphic processes are mainly headward erosion in the upstream.

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