Marine Terrace Scarp Diffusion Modeling with MATLAB

Below is a project from GEOL-412 (Tectonic Geomorphology). This project seeks to quantify the rate of decay of marine terraces on San Clemente Island, CA. A marine terrace is a flat "step" in the landscape formed by relative changes in sea level. San Clemente Island was formed by a bend in a strike-slip fault, resulting in compression and uplift. The rate of uplift is extremely high, to the point where there are many marine terraces visible. The purpose of this project is to take the age of known terraces and establish a rate of decay using a MATLAB diffusion model to predict the age of other older/younger terraces.

Fig. 2: Product of MATLAB diffusion model yielding the decay constant and allowing other terrace's age to be predicted.