171271 20260515163946.0 doi 10.1126/science.ady6805 sideral 149246 ART-2026-149246 eng Dong, Tian Y. Apparent Hack’s law in river deltas 2026 River deltas are densely populated, ecologically vital landscapes threatened by rising sea levels. Distributary channel networks disperse sediment to build deltaic land, yet the relationship between the network organization and land building remains elusive. Inspired by Hack’s law, which shows that watershed drainage area scales with channel length in tributary networks, we analyzed a global dataset of distributary networks and found a nearly identical scaling relationship between distributary channel length and nourishment area, the land-building counterpart to drainage area. Despite this apparent global scaling, we further identified two distinct local land-building patterns: uniform delta networks consistently follow Hack’s law, whereas composite delta networks exhibit a scale break, transitioning from space-filling growth around the delta apex to quasi-linear growth near the coast. The unexpected growth patterns suggest that global simplicity and local variability coexist in how river deltas grow and organize. Access copy available to the general public Unrestricted info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess All rights reserved http://www.europeana.eu/rights/rr-f/ info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion Vulis, Lawrence Ma, Hongbo Tejedor, Alejandro Universidad de Zaragoza (orcid)0000-0002-3800-5304 Goudge, Timothy A. 2004 398 Universidad de Zaragoza Dpto. Física Teórica Área Física de la Tierra 392, 6797 (2026), 493-498 Sci. Science 0036-8075 12788610 http://zaguan.unizar.es/record/171271/files/texto_completo.pdf Postprint 1559503 http://zaguan.unizar.es/record/171271/files/texto_completo.jpg?subformat=icon icon Postprint oai:zaguan.unizar.es:171271 articulos driver 2026-05-15-14:56:25 ARTICLE