The Arun River Drainage Pattern and the Rise of the Himalaya

Wager, L. R.

doi:10.2307/1785796

Cited by 80 publications

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“…For areas in isostatic equilibrium, denudational isostasy means that, for every metre that is removed from the Earth's surface by denudation, the Earth's surface is uplifted by about 0·8 m (0·8 being the approximate ratio of the densities of the crust and sublithospheric mantle). The importance of such denudational isostasy in maintaining relief had been realized by the 1830s, and the notion was applied sporadically throughout the 20th century to suggest that mountain peaks may be uplifted isostatically as a result of the unloading caused by the incision by major rivers flowing between the mountain peaks (e.g., Jeffreys, 1931;Wager, 1937; for more detail see Bishop, 2007). King (1955) and Pugh (1955) argued that the crustal unloading associated with escarpment retreat on continental margins such as southern Africa would likewise lead to isostatic uplift of the margin.…”

Section: Rock Uplift Surface Processes Surface Uplift and Isostasymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…King (1955) and Pugh (1955) argued that the crustal unloading associated with escarpment retreat on continental margins such as southern Africa would likewise lead to isostatic uplift of the margin. Molnar and England (1990) revived the insight of Jeffreys (1931) and Wager (1937) and suggested that regional isostatic response to valley incision may lead to mountain peak uplift. They took this insight much further, however, by then arguing that climate change can drive tectonics and surface uplift.…”

Section: Rock Uplift Surface Processes Surface Uplift and Isostasymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, the interaction between rock mass flux and erosion driven by orographic rainfall also influences the gross topographic structure of the mountain belt in terms of the location of the crest (topographic divide) of the orogen vis-à-vis the detachment point of the subducting plate (Figure 11(b)). It has also been argued that very high rates of local erosion may also lead to enhanced denudational isostatic rock uplift and hence localized rock deformation within the orogen, reviving Wager's (1937) argument for the development of river anticlines in the Himalayas (e.g., Dahlen and Suppe, 1988;Whipple and Meade, 2004;Montgomery and Stolar, 2006). In extreme cases, such as beneath extremely rapidly incising rivers such as the Tsang Po where it passes the Namche Barwa massif in the easternmost Himalaya, the mantle is bowed upwards beneath the areas of highest stream power and most rapid incision (Zeitler et al, 2001).…”

Section: Orogenic Settingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Long‐term landscape evolution: linking tectonics and surface processes

Bishop

2007

Earth Surf Processes Landf

347

193

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Research in landscape evolution over millions to tens of millions of years slowed considerably in the mid-20th century, when Davisian and other approaches to geomorphology were replaced by functional, morphometric and ultimately process-based approaches. Hack's scheme of dynamic equilibrium in landscape evolution was perhaps the major theoretical contribution to long-term landscape evolution between the 1950s and about 1990, but it essentially 'looked back' to Davis for its springboard to a viewpoint contrary to that of Davis, as did less widely known schemes, such as Crickmay's hypothesis of unequal activity. Since about 1990, the field of long-term landscape evolution has blossomed again, stimulated by the plate tectonics revolution and its re-forging of the link between tectonics and topography, and by the development of numerical models that explore the links between tectonic processes and surface processes. This numerical modelling of landscape evolution has been built around formulation of bedrock river processes and slope processes, and has mostly focused on high-elevation passive continental margins and convergent zones; these models now routinely include flexural and denudational isostasy.Major breakthroughs in analytical and geochronological techniques have been of profound relevance to all of the above. Low-temperature thermochronology, and in particular apatite fission track analysis and (U-Th)/He analysis in apatite, have enabled rates of rock uplift and denudational exhumation from relatively shallow crustal depths (up to about 4 km) to be determined directly from, in effect, rock hand specimens. In a few situations, (U-Th)/He analysis has been used to determine the antiquity of major, long-wavelength topography. Cosmogenic isotope analysis has enabled the determination of the 'ages' of bedrock and sedimentary surfaces, and/or the rates of denudation of these surfaces. These latter advances represent in some ways a 'holy grail' in geomorphology in that they enable determination of 'dates and rates' of geomorphological processes directly from rock surfaces. The increasing availability of analytical techniques such as cosmogenic isotope analysis should mean that much larger data sets become possible and lead to more sophisticated analyses, such as probability density functions (PDFs) of cosmogenic ages and even of cosmogenic isotope concentrations (CICs). PDFs of isotope concentrations must be a function of catchment area geomorphology (including tectonics) and it is at least theoretically possible to infer aspects of source area geomorphology and geomorphological processes from PDFs of CICs in sediments ('detrital CICs'). Thus it may be possible to use PDFs of detrital CICs in basin sediments as a tool to infer aspects of the sediments' source area geomorphology and tectonics, complementing the standard sedimentological textural and compositional approaches to such issues.One of the most stimulating of recent conceptual advances has followed the considerations of the relationships between te...

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Section: Rock Uplift Surface Processes Surface Uplift and Isostasymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Rock Uplift Surface Processes Surface Uplift and Isostasymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Orogenic Settingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Long‐term landscape evolution: linking tectonics and surface processes

Bishop

2007

Earth Surf Processes Landf

347

193

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“…Rivers that bisect the Zagros Mountains are the classic example of drainage superposition (Oberlander, 1965), and the major drainages of the Himalaya, which generally flow transverse to the orientation of the range, are also thought to have been formed by antecedent rivers that flowed across the edge of the rising Tibetan Plateau at the onset of and during the Himalayan orogeny (Wager, 1937;Gansser, 1964;Oberlander, 1985). Alvarez (1999) and Simpson (2004) describe additional examples of relationships between transverse rivers and structure highs in the central Apennine foldand-thrust belt, the Pyrenees, the Swiss and French Alps, and the central Andes.…”

Section: Previous Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Cases where rivers flow along structural highs are known as river anticlines and, as noted by Oberlander (1985), are common along Himalayan rivers. Wager (1937) originally noted that the Arun River flows along synclines in Tibet and then drops through the Himalaya in a gorge along an anticline carved into hard, deeply-exhumed gneiss and suggested that the most recent phase of Himalayan uplift was due to isostatic response to incision of deep river valleys.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reconsidering Himalayan river anticlines

Montgomery

Stolar

2006

Geomorphology

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Local relief and the height of Mount Olympus

Montgomery

Greenberg

2000

Earth Surf. Process. Landforms

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A three-dimensional assessment of the net volume of rock differentially eroded from below mountain tops to form valleys yields a range-wide constraint on feedback between valley development and the height of mountain peaks. Thè superelevation' of mountain peaks potentially attributable to differential removal of material from below peaks in the Olympic Mountains, Washington, was constrained by fitting a smoothed surface to the highest elevation points on a 30 m grid digital elevation model of the range. High elevation areas separate into two primary areas: one centred on Mount Olympus in the core of the range and the other at the eastern end of the range. The largest valleys, and hence areas with the greatest volume of differentially eroded material, surround Mount Olympus. In contrast, the highest mean elevations concentrate in the eastern end of the range. Calculation of the isostatic rebound at Mount Olympus attributable to valley development ranges from 500 to 750 m (21 to 32 per cent of its height) for a 5 to 10 km effective elastic thickness of the crust.Comparison of cross-range trends in mean and maximum elevation reveals that this calculated rebound for Mount Olympus corresponds well with its`superelevation' above the general cross-range trend in mean elevation. It therefore appears that the location of the highest peak in the Olympics is controlled by the deep valleys excavated in the centre of the range.

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The Arun River Drainage Pattern and the Rise of the Himalaya

Cited by 80 publications

References 0 publications

Long‐term landscape evolution: linking tectonics and surface processes

Long‐term landscape evolution: linking tectonics and surface processes

Reconsidering Himalayan river anticlines

Local relief and the height of Mount Olympus

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