The impact of river capture on the landscape development of the Dadu River drainage basin, eastern Tibetan plateau

•56 tributary basins and rivers were analyzed in the Dadu River drainage basin.•Contrasting topographic metrics patterns are identified in the drainage basin.•Topographic metrics are well correlated with 10Be derived erosion rates.•Topographic patterns are related to the Dadu and Anning river capture. Continental collision between India and Eurasia plates and associated compression result in the formation of the Tibetan Plateau with a mean elevation of >5000 m. However, how the plateau was formed is still under debate. In this study, by analyzing multiple topographic metrics in the Dadu River drainage basin, eastern Tibetan Plateau, together with previous studies, we attempt to unravel the landscape development there. Our results reveal significant differences in the obtained topographic metrics within the Dadu River drainage basin: higher values of hypsometric integral (HI), normalized stream length gradient (SLK), topographic relief, slope and channel steepness in the middle section of the drainage basin between 29.2° N and 31° N, and lower values in the upper (north of 31° N) and lower sections (south of 29.2° N). Meanwhile, these topographic metrics show a good match with the millennial-scale erosion rates but the long-term exhumation rates contrast between the upper Dadu and the lower Dadu despite similar topographic metric values. We infer that the topographic patterns in the Dadu River drainage basin are related to river capture between the Dadu and Anning Rivers which resulted in the adjustment of the landscape in the middle section of the Dadu River drainage basin with additional incision occurred but not enough to be recorded by low temperature thermochronometric ages.