Steady incision of Grand Canyon at the million year timeframe: A case for mantle-driven differential uplift

Crow, Ryan S.; Karlstrom, Karl E.; Darling, Andrew; Crossey, L. J.; Polyak, Victor J.; Granger, Darryl E.; Asmerom, Yemane; Schmandt, Brandon

doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2014.04.020

Cited by 39 publications

(100 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…They did not take issue with our observation that short-distance transport in Colorado River tributaries is insufficient to round the pebbles present in several outcrop P1 lenses (see p. 645 of Abbott et al, 2015). Nor did they address our favorable comparison of those lenses' lith ology with that of terrace gravels near Tanner Rapid that Anders et al (2005) and Crow et al (2014) identified as Colorado River gravel (see our fig. 13).…”

Section: The 159-mile Dikes At Rm 159mentioning

confidence: 80%

“…The age of point 1272, which appears to be the sole anchor for the hypothesized 1.5 Ma longitudinal profile, is reported as 1272 ± 605 ka. Error bars for the other two points are 623 +162 -78 ka and 651 +151 -82 ka (Crow et al, 2014). As we illustrate on Figure 2, passage of a transient knickzone could lower the elevation of the Colorado River by hundreds of meters during the time encompassed by these error bars.…”

Section: Our Model Is Incompatible With Seven "Well-dated" Travertinementioning

confidence: 88%

“…Figure 2 illustrates how poor the age constraints are for the other five points Crow et al (2015a) argued are incompatible with our transient knickzone model. Crow et al (2014) reported age uncertainties of ±440 ka for point 880 and ±420 ka for point 980 on Crow et al's (2015a) figure 1. The age of point 1272, which appears to be the sole anchor for the hypothesized 1.5 Ma longitudinal profile, is reported as 1272 ± 605 ka.…”

Section: Our Model Is Incompatible With Seven "Well-dated" Travertinementioning

confidence: 96%

“…On their figure 1, Crow et al (2015a) plotted the data of Crow et al (2014) and Abbott et al (2015) on a longitudinal profile of the Colorado River through Grand Canyon. They highlighted seven of their data points that they considered both "well-dated" and incompatible with our transient knickzone model.…”

Section: Our Model Is Incompatible With Seven "Well-dated" Travertinementioning

confidence: 99%

“…aver age rate determined by Karlstrom et al (2007) or the ~101 m/m.y. rate Crow et al (2014) calculated for western Grand Canyon during the past ca. 600 ka.…”

Section: Knickzone Height and Incision Rate Are Both "Unreasonable"mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Rates of river incision and scarp retreat in eastern and central Grand Canyon over the past half million years: Evidence for passage of a transient knickzone: REPLY

2016

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Section: The 159-mile Dikes At Rm 159mentioning

confidence: 80%

Section: Our Model Is Incompatible With Seven "Well-dated" Travertinementioning

confidence: 88%

Section: Our Model Is Incompatible With Seven "Well-dated" Travertinementioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Our Model Is Incompatible With Seven "Well-dated" Travertinementioning

confidence: 99%

“…aver age rate determined by Karlstrom et al (2007) or the ~101 m/m.y. rate Crow et al (2014) calculated for western Grand Canyon during the past ca. 600 ka.…”

Section: Knickzone Height and Incision Rate Are Both "Unreasonable"mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Rates of river incision and scarp retreat in eastern and central Grand Canyon over the past half million years: Evidence for passage of a transient knickzone: REPLY

2016

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Intraplate volcanism at the edges of the Colorado Plateau sustained by a combination of triggered edge‐driven convection and shear‐driven upwelling

Ballmer

Conrad

Smith

et al. 2015

Geochem Geophys Geosyst

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Although volcanism in the southwestern United States has been studied extensively, its origin remains controversial. Various mechanisms such as mantle plumes, upwelling in response to slab sinking, and small-scale convective processes have been proposed, but have not been evaluated within the context of rapidly shearing asthenosphere that is thought to underlie this region. Using geodynamic models that include this shear, we here explore spatiotemporal patterns of mantle melting and volcanism near the Colorado Plateau. We show that the presence of viscosity heterogeneity within an environment of asthenospheric shearing can give rise to decompression melting along the margins of the Colorado Plateau. Our models indicate that eastward shear flow can advect pockets of anomalously low viscosity toward the edges of thickened lithosphere beneath the plateau, where they can induce decompression melting in two ways. First, the arrival of the pockets critically changes the effective viscosity near the plateau to trigger smallscale edge-driven convection. Second, they can excite shear-driven upwelling (SDU), in which horizontal shear flow becomes redirected upward as it is focused within the low-viscosity pocket. We find that a combination of ''triggered'' edge-driven convection and SDU can explain volcanism along the margins of the Colorado Plateau, its encroachment toward the plateau's southwestern edge, and the association of volcanism with slow seismic anomalies in the asthenosphere. Geographic patterns of intraplate volcanism in regions of vigorous asthenospheric shearing may thus directly mirror viscosity heterogeneity of the sublithospheric mantle.

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Amphitheatre‐headed canyons of Southern Utah: Stratigraphic control of canyon morphology

Ryan

Whipple

2020

Earth Surf Processes Landf

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Amphitheatre-headed canyons are common on Earth and Mars and researchers have long sought to draw inferences about canyon-forming processes from the morphology of canyon heads and associated knickpoints, often suggesting that amphitheatre heads indicate erosion by groundwater seepage erosion. However, the conditions and processes that lead to amphitheatre-headed canyon formation have been debated for many years. We consider two hypotheses that attribute the amphitheatre-headed canyon formation to fluvial erosion of strong-over-weak stratigraphy or, alternatively, groundwater spring discharge and seepage erosion. A spatial analysis of canyon-form distribution with respect to local stratigraphy along the Escalante River and on Tarantula Mesa, Utah indicates that canyon form is most closely related to variations in local sedimentary rock strata, rather than inferred groundwater spring intensity. Lateral facies variations that affect the continuity of strong layers can induce or disrupt the formation of amphitheatres. Furthermore, we find that amphitheatre retreat rate is dictated by the interaction of fluvial processes downstream of the amphitheatre headwalls and stratigraphy, rather than waterfall and groundwater processes that likely importantly influence headwall form. We conclude that fluvial erosion of strong-over-weak stratigraphic layering alone is sufficient to form amphitheatres at knickpoints and canyon heads. Thus, we reaffirm that formation process should not be inferred from canyon-head morphology, particularly where a strong-over-weak layering is known or plausible.

show abstract

Steady incision of Grand Canyon at the million year timeframe: A case for mantle-driven differential uplift

Cited by 39 publications

References 39 publications

Rates of river incision and scarp retreat in eastern and central Grand Canyon over the past half million years: Evidence for passage of a transient knickzone: REPLY

Rates of river incision and scarp retreat in eastern and central Grand Canyon over the past half million years: Evidence for passage of a transient knickzone: REPLY

Intraplate volcanism at the edges of the Colorado Plateau sustained by a combination of triggered edge‐driven convection and shear‐driven upwelling

Amphitheatre‐headed canyons of Southern Utah: Stratigraphic control of canyon morphology

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