Frost for the trees: Did climate increase erosion in unglaciated landscapes during the late Pleistocene?

Marshall, Jill; Roering, J. J.; Bartlein, Patrick J.; Gavin, Daniel G.; Granger, Darryl E.; Rempel, A. W.; Praskievicz, Sarah; Hales, Tristram C.

doi:10.1126/sciadv.1500715

Cited by 88 publications

(108 citation statements)

References 74 publications

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“…Changes in temperature can affect physical weathering due to temperature-induced changes in periglacial processes and promote frost cracking, frost creep (e.g. Matsuoka, 2001;Schaller et al, 2002;Matsuoka and Murton, 2008;Delunel et al, 2010;Andersen et al, 2015;Marshall et al, 2015), and biotic weathering and erosion (e.g. Moulton and Berner, 1998;Banfield et al, 1999;Dietrich and Perron, 2006).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…10, 11), which may favour frost-driven weathering during glacial climate states (e.g. Andersen et al, 2015;Marshall et al, 2015) in unglaciated areas, whereas glacial processes would have dominated most of this region as it was covered by ice. Simulation PLIO is distinguished by temperatures that exceed PI and MH conditions by ca.…”

Section: St Elias Mountains Southern Alaskamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Otto-Bliesner et al, 2006;Li et al, 2017) that could influence catchment denudation in non-glaciated environments (e.g. Schaller and Ehlers, 2006;Glotzbach et al, 2013;Marshall et al, 2015). These dynamics highlight the importance of investigating how much climate has changed over orogens that are the focus of studies of climate-tectonic interactions and their impact on erosion.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Estimates of late Cenozoic climate change relevant to Earth surface processes in tectonically active orogens

et al. 2018

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Abstract. The denudation history of active orogens is often interpreted in the context of modern climate gradients. Here we address the validity of this approach and ask what are the spatial and temporal variations in palaeoclimate for a latitudinally diverse range of active orogens? We do this using high-resolution (T159, ca. 80 × 80 km at the Equator) palaeoclimate simulations from the ECHAM5 global atmospheric general circulation model and a statistical cluster analysis of climate over different orogens (Andes, Himalayas, SE Alaska, Pacific NW USA). Time periods and boundary conditions considered include the Pliocene (PLIO, ∼ 3 Ma), the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, ∼ 21 ka), mid-Holocene (MH, ∼ 6 ka), and pre-industrial (PI, reference year 1850). The regional simulated climates of each orogen are described by means of cluster analyses based on the variability in precipitation, 2 m air temperature, the intra-annual amplitude of these values, and monsoonal wind speeds where appropriate. Results indicate the largest differences in the PI climate existed for the LGM and PLIO climates in the form of widespread cooling and reduced precipitation in the LGM and warming and enhanced precipitation during the PLIO. The LGM climate shows the largest deviation in annual precipitation from the PI climate and shows enhanced precipitation in the temperate Andes and coastal regions for both SE Alaska and the US Pacific Northwest. Furthermore, LGM precipitation is reduced in the western Himalayas and enhanced in the eastern Himalayas, resulting in a shift of the wettest regional climates eastward along the orogen. The cluster-analysis results also suggest more climatic variability across latitudes east of the Andes in the PLIO climate than in other time slice experiments conducted here. Taken together, these results highlight significant changes in late Cenozoic regional climatology over the last ∼ 3 Myr. Comparison of simulated climate with proxy-based reconstructions for the MH and LGM reveal satisfactory to good performance of the model in reproducing precipitation changes, although in some cases discrepancies between neighbouring proxy observations highlight contradictions between proxy observations themselves. Finally, we document regions where the largest magnitudes of late Cenozoic changes in precipitation and temperature occur and offer the highest potential for future observational studies that quantify the impact of climate change on denudation and weathering rates.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: St Elias Mountains Southern Alaskamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Estimates of late Cenozoic climate change relevant to Earth surface processes in tectonically active orogens

et al. 2018

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“…In this special issue of ESPL, the great depths of weathering and modest erosion rates reported in two studies imply long legacies of past environments on weathering profiles developed in the Sierra Nevada, California (Holbrook et al , ), and in the mountains of Puerto Rico (Buss et al , ). In a recent study of the influence of Pleistocene climate on paleo‐erosion rates in the Oregon Coast Ranges, Marshall et al () have suggested that peri‐glacial processes during past climates may have widespread implications for interpreting observations of the CZ.…”

Section: Observations Of the Deep Czmentioning

confidence: 99%

Controls on deep critical zone architecture: a historical review and four testable hypotheses

Riebe

Hahm

Brantley

2016

Earth Surf Processes Landf

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The base of Earth's critical zone (CZ) is commonly shielded from study by many meters of overlying rock and regolith. Though deep CZ processes may seem far removed from the surface, they are vital in shaping it, preparing rock for infusion into the biosphere and breaking Earth materials down for transport across landscapes. This special issue highlights outstanding challenges and recent advances of deep CZ research in a series of articles that we introduce here in the context of relevant literature dating back to the 1500s. Building on several contributions to the special issue, we highlight four exciting new hypotheses about factors that drive deep CZ weathering and thus influence the evolution of life-sustaining CZ architecture. These hypotheses have emerged from recently developed process-based models of subsurface phenomena including: fracturing related to subsurface stress fields; weathering related to drainage of bedrock under hydraulic head gradients; rock damage from frost cracking due to subsurface temperature gradients; and mineral reactions with reactive fluids in subsurface chemical potential gradients. The models predict distinct patterns of subsurface weathering and CZ thickness that can be compared with observations from drilling, sampling and geophysical imaging. We synthesize the four hypotheses into an overarching conceptual model of fracturing and weathering that occurs as Earth materials are exhumed to the surface across subsurface gradients in stress, hydraulic head, temperature, and chemical potential. We conclude with a call for a coordinated measurement campaign designed to comprehensively test the four hypotheses across a range of climatic, tectonic and geologic conditions.

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“…Periglacial processes have also been suggested to be a key controlling factor for erosion (e.g. Marshall et al, 2015;Dosseto and Schaller, 2016): erosion is enhanced during cold periods in regions where they occur, whereas it is enhanced during warmer periods in regions exempt of periglacial processes. Mass wasting processes could be the main driver for erosion increase during wet periods (e.g.…”

Section: Impact Of Climate Changementioning

confidence: 99%

Autogenic versus allogenic controls on the evolution of a coupled fluvial megafan–mountainous catchment system: numerical modelling and comparison with the Lannemezan megafan system (northern Pyrenees, France)

et al. 2017

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Abstract. Alluvial megafans are sensitive recorders of landscape evolution, controlled by both autogenic processes and allogenic forcing, and they are influenced by the coupled dynamics of the fan with its mountainous catchment. The Lannemezan megafan in the northern Pyrenean foreland was abandoned by its mountainous feeder stream during the Quaternary and subsequently incised, leaving a flight of alluvial terraces along the stream network. We use numerical models to explore the relative roles of autogenic processes and external forcing in the building, abandonment and incision of a foreland megafan, and we compare the results with the inferred evolution of the Lannemezan megafan. Autogenic processes are sufficient to explain the building of a megafan and the long-term entrenchment of its feeding river on time and space scales that match the Lannemezan setting. Climate, through temporal variations in precipitation rate, may have played a role in the episodic pattern of incision on a shorter timescale. In contrast, base-level changes, tectonic activity in the mountain range or tilting of the foreland through flexural isostatic rebound do not appear to have played a role in the abandonment of the megafan.

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Frost for the trees: Did climate increase erosion in unglaciated landscapes during the late Pleistocene?

Abstract: Frost processes more than doubled erosion rates in unglaciated terrain during the Last Glacial Maximum.

Cited by 88 publications

References 74 publications

Estimates of late Cenozoic climate change relevant to Earth surface processes in tectonically active orogens

Estimates of late Cenozoic climate change relevant to Earth surface processes in tectonically active orogens

Controls on deep critical zone architecture: a historical review and four testable hypotheses

Autogenic versus allogenic controls on the evolution of a coupled fluvial megafan–mountainous catchment system: numerical modelling and comparison with the Lannemezan megafan system (northern Pyrenees, France)

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