Morphometric Analysis – Analyzes the tectonic structure of the terrain.  Although widely recognized as a factor in shaping the Earth’s topography, the connection of tectonics to surface relief is often overlooked and its value underestimated as relates to resource exploration.

The formation of surface relief and the manifestation of geomorphological processes depend directly on the mass distribution in the Earth’s crust.  Due to such a correlation, according to the distribution of the absolute and relative topographic highs, one can delineate both surface structures and deeply buried tectonic structures.

The method postulates that the progress of exogenous relief-forming processes is a function of the gravity-potential-difference, which in turn depends on the geological structure features and crustal movements.  This hypothesis connects the surface’s relief with the structures of the crust.

Based on the aforementioned hypothesis, morphometric study distinguishes tectonic structures based on maps which are created using topographic and digital elevation data (morphometric maps).  Thus, the input information for the method is topographic highs, drainage system information, and watersheds of a given area.