RECOGNITION OF DURICRUST GEOMORPHIC SURFACES USING A RELIEF DISSECTION MATRIX

Landforms can orientate the hydrodynamics and distribution of materials on the ground, producing flattened and/or lowered geomorphic surfaces given the evolutionary characteristics from climatic, morphogenetic and pedogenetic factors. This work aims to demonstrate the compartmentalization and association of geomorphic surfaces covered by ferruginous duricrusts in Savannah areas in Brazil according to a relief dissection matrix. This matrix indicates the vertical cutting of the valleys and the interfluvial horizontal dimension of the hills through landform measurements in radar images, classification in alphanumeric codes and statistical correlations. The results indicated details in the compartmentalization of the surface according to the landform roughness, making it possible to link, through data from the dissection matrix and the statistical correlation, the association between the compartments according to summit positions and remaining depressed areas. Despite the fact that more robust measurements obtained from high-precision mappings can point out further landform evolutionary stages, it is understood that a dissection matrix and its statistical correlations can not only compartmentalize the landscape and provide an initial overview of the landscape’s evolution, but also indicate geomorphic surfaces that could have been worked at the same time. In this sense, the recognition of geomorphic surfaces, occurrence of duricrusts and landforms in this work allowed a certain morphogenetic correspondence that can contribute to geomorphological studies, although the results must be observed with caution when verified from the tropical perspective of relief evolution. Keywords: Valley Cutting; Interfluvial Dimension; Dissection Matrix; Geomorphic Surfaces; Duricrusts