headward

1. (geology) Cutting backwards or upstream above the original source.Examples: "The highest, flattest, and smoothest part of Tibet (3 ) is the central, Oligo-Miocene plateau, mature but still sheltered, especially in the west, from headward erosion."; "[View Larger Version of this Image (130K GIF file)] Discussion The martian landforms resemble terrestrial gullies, which form by a combination of processes, including overland flow, headward sapping (32 ), debris flow, and other mass movements (33 )--all processes that, on Earth, involve the action of water."; "Even without the structures, there was a morphological feedback: As headward stream channels widened from lateral erosion, new floodplains developed that were lower, fine textured, and vegetated (Fig. 3 ), a condition noted in 1975 (2 )."not-comparable