Reconciling arroyo cycle and paleoflood approaches to late Holocene alluvial records in dryland streams

Harvey, Jonathan E.; Pederson, Joel L.

doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2010.12.025

Cited by 24 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…The vegetation conditions in satellite imagery partly define the area attributed to steep Claron Formation exposure in Figure 12. Harvey and Pederson, 2011;Nelson and Rittenour, 2014;Townsend et al, 2019), which is less than necessary for periods of burial or re-exposure to decrease or increase 10 Be concentrations significantly. Acosta et al, 2015) might affect the depth of sediment sourcing, possibly influencing the concentration of 10 Be in sediment downstream.…”

Section: Limitations In Cosmogenic Erosion Rate Calculationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resistant rock layers amplify cosmogenically‐determined erosion rates

Darling

Whipple

Bierman

et al. 2020

Earth Surf Processes Landf

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Prior numerical modeling work has suggested that incision into sub‐horizontal layered stratigraphy with variable erodibility induces non‐uniform erosion rates even if base‐level fall is steady and sustained. Erosion rates of cliff bands formed in the stronger rocks in a stratigraphic sequence can greatly exceed the rate of base‐level fall. Where quartz in downstream sediment is sourced primarily from the stronger, cliff‐forming units, erosion rates estimated from concentrations of cosmogenic beryllium‐10 (10Be) in detrital sediment will reflect the locally high erosion rates in retreating cliff bands. We derive theoretical relationships for threshold hillslopes and channels described by the stream‐power incision model as a quantitative guide to the potential magnitude of this amplification of 10Be‐derived erosion rates above the rate of base‐level fall. Our analyses predict that the degree of erosion rate amplification is a function of bedding dip and either the ratio of rock erodibility in alternating strong and weak layers in the channel network, or the ratio of cliff to intervening‐slope gradient on threshold hillslopes. We test our predictions in the cliff‐and‐bench landscape of the Grand Staircase in southern Utah, USA. We show that detrital cosmogenic erosion rates in this landscape are significantly higher (median 300 m/Ma) than the base‐level fall rate (~75 m/Ma) determined from the incision rate of a trunk stream into a ~0.6 Ma basalt flow emplaced along a 16 km reach of the channel. We infer a 3–6‐fold range in rock strength from near‐surface P‐wave velocity measurements. The approximately four‐fold difference between the median 10Be‐derived erosion rate and the long‐term rate of base‐level fall is consistent with our model and the observation that the stronger, cliff‐forming lithologies in this landscape are the primary source of quartz in detrital sediments. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Section: Limitations In Cosmogenic Erosion Rate Calculationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resistant rock layers amplify cosmogenically‐determined erosion rates

Darling

Whipple

Bierman

et al. 2020

Earth Surf Processes Landf

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“…This progression is driven by both autogenic processes (Schumm and Hadley, 1957;Elliott et al, 1999), and external stimuli, including intense precipitation (Hereford, 1984), human infl uences such as livestock grazing and channel modifi cation (Thornthwaite et al, 1942;Love, 1997;Boardman, 2014), and climate change (Karlstrom and Karlstrom, 1987;Harvey and Pederson, 2011). In the unincised phase, a narrow channel migrates across a broad fl oodplain, and the sediment supply is greater than or equal to the capacity of the stream to transport sediment.…”

Section: Arroyosmentioning

confidence: 99%

Processes of arroyo filling in northern New Mexico, USA

Friedman¹,

Vincent²,

Griffin³

et al. 2014

Geological Society of America Bulletin

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We documented arroyo evolution at the tree, trench, and arroyo scales along the lower Rio Puerco and Chaco Wash in northern New Mexico, USA. We excavated 29 buried living woody plants and used burial signatures in their annual rings to date stratigraphy in four trenches across the arroyos. Then, we reconstructed the history of arroyo evolution by combining trench data with arroyo-scale information from aerial imagery, light detection and ranging (LiDAR), longitudinal profi les, and repeat surveys of cross sections. Burial signatures in annual rings of salt cedar and willow dated sedimentary beds greater than 30 cm thick with annual precision. Along both arroyos, incision occurred until the 1930s in association with extreme high fl ows, and subsequent fi lling involved vegetation development, channel narrowing, increased sinuosity, and fi nally vertical aggradation. A strongly depositional sediment transport regime interacted with fl oodplain shrubs to produce a characteristic narrow, trapezoidal channel. The 55 km study reach along the Rio Puerco demonstrated upstream progression of arroyo widening and fi lling, but not of arroyo incision, channel narrowing, or fl oodplain vegetation development. We conclude that the occurrence of upstream progression within large basins like the Rio Puerco makes precise synchrony across basins impossible. Arroyo wall retreat is now mostly limited to locations where meanders impinge on the arroyo wall, forming hairpin bends, for which entry to and exit from the wall are stationary. Average annual sediment storage within the Rio Puerco study reach between 1955 and 2005 was 4.8 × 10 5 t/yr, 16% of the average annual suspended sediment yield, and 24% of the long-term bedrock denudation rate. At this rate, the arroyo would fi ll in 310 yr.

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“…Like other alluvial archives throughout the Colorado Plateau, our record was generated by episodes of changing sediment transport, storage, and incision, which have long been linked to changing paleoclimate, but in ways that are still poorly understood (e.g., refs. [34][35][36][37]. The T2 deposit dates to the latest Pleistocene-early Holocene transition, which in this area was a time of highly variable climate, vegetation disturbance, and later, an enhanced onset of the Southwest Monsoon (38,39).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Age of Barrier Canyon-style rock art constrained by cross-cutting relations and luminescence dating techniques

Pederson¹,

Chapot

Simms

et al. 2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Rock art compels interest from both researchers and a broader public, inspiring many hypotheses about its cultural origin and meaning, but it is notoriously difficult to date numerically. Barrier Canyon-style (BCS) pictographs of the Colorado Plateau are among the most debated examples; hypotheses about its age span the entire Holocene epoch and previous attempts at direct radiocarbon dating have failed. We provide multiple age constraints through the use of cross-cutting relations and new and broadly applicable approaches in optically stimulated luminescence dating at the Great Gallery panel, the type section of BCS art in Canyonlands National Park, southeastern Utah. Alluvial chronostratigraphy constrains the burial and exhumation of the alcove containing the panel, and limits are also set by our related research dating both a rockfall that removed some figures and the rock's exposure duration before that time. Results provide a maximum possible age, a minimum age, and an exposure time window for the creation of the Great Gallery panel, respectively. The only prior hypothesis not disproven is a late Archaic origin for BCS rock art, although our age result of A.D. ∼1-1100 coincides better with the transition to and rise of the subsequent Fremont culture. This chronology is for the type locality only, and variability in the age of other sites is likely. Nevertheless, results suggest that BCS rock art represents an artistic tradition that spanned cultures and the transition from foraging to farming in the region.

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Reconciling arroyo cycle and paleoflood approaches to late Holocene alluvial records in dryland streams

Cited by 24 publications

References 41 publications

Resistant rock layers amplify cosmogenically‐determined erosion rates

Resistant rock layers amplify cosmogenically‐determined erosion rates

Processes of arroyo filling in northern New Mexico, USA

Age of Barrier Canyon-style rock art constrained by cross-cutting relations and luminescence dating techniques

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