The lithospheric stress field controls the development of topography, faulting, and non-brittle deformation. At long wavelengths, the sources of stress can be found in variations in the thickness and density of the lithosphere and mantle flow acting on the base of the lithosphere. How these sources of stress manifest themselves in surface features, if at all, remains elusive, but can provide valuable insight into the coupling of lithospheric deformation and the deep interior.. Here, we compare the directions of the principal compressive horizontal stress with the direction of active faults, and river flow across the globe. Fault orientations are mostly consistent with predictions based on Anderson’s fault theory. However, we find that extensional fault regimes are best predicted by stresses from lithospheric heterogeneity alone, while compressive fault regimes are best predicted by stresses from mantle flow. On this basis, we propose a metric to quantify the relative influence of mantle flow on surface features and suggest this can provide important information about variations in the strength of the lithosphere.