Unbalanced sediment budgets in the catchment–alluvial fan system of the Kuitun River (northern Tian Shan, China): Implications for mass-balance estimates, denudation and sedimentation rates in orogenic systems

Jolivet, Marc; Barrier, Laurie; Dominguez, Stéphane; Guérit, Laure; Heilbronn, Gloria; Fu, Bihong

doi:10.1016/j.geomorph.2014.01.024

Cited by 29 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 71 publications

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“…The gravel previously deposited at the range front is now remobilised by incision and transported farther downstream, feeding the lower fans, located about 30‐km downstream from the range front (Fig. , see also Jolivet et al ., ; Guerit et al ., ).…”

Section: Geological Setting Of the North Piedmont Of The Eastern Tianmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lag and mixing during sediment transfer across the Tian Shan piedmont caused by climate‐driven aggradation–incision cycles

et al. 2017

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Transient sediment storage and mixing of deposits of various ages during transport across alluvial piedmonts alters the clastic sedimentary record. We quantify buffering and mixing during cycles of aggradation-incision in the north piedmont of the Eastern Tian Shan. We complement existing chronologic data with 20 new luminescence ages and one cosmogenic radionuclide age of terrace abandonment and alluvial aggradation. Over the last 0.5 Myrs, the piedmont deeply incised and aggraded many times per 100 kyr. Aggradation is driven by an increased flux of glacial sediment accumulated in the high range and flushed onto the piedmont by greater water discharge at stadialinterstadial transitions. After this sediment is evacuated from the high range, the reduced input sediment flux results in fluvial incision of the piedmont as fast as 9 cm/yr and to depths up to 330 m. The timing of incision onset is different in each river and does not directly reflect climate forcing but the necessary time for the evacuation of glacial sediment from the high range. A significant fraction of sediments evacuated from the high range is temporarily stored on the piedmont before a later incision Accepted ArticleThis article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.phase delivers it to the basin. Coarse sediments arrive in the basin with a lag of at least 7 to 14 kyrs between the first evacuation from the mountain and later basinward transport. The modern output flux of coarse sediments from the piedmont contains a significant amount of recycled material that was deposited on the piedmont as early as the Middle Pleistocene. Variations in temperature and moisture delivered by the Westerlies are the likely cause of repeated aggradation-incision cycles in the north piedmont instead of monsoonal precipitation. The arrival of the gravel front into the proximal basin is delayed relative to the fine-grained load and both are separated by a hiatus. This work shows, based on field observations and data, how sedimentary systems respond to climatic perturbations, and how sediment recycling and mixing can ensue.

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Section: Geological Setting Of the North Piedmont Of The Eastern Tianmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lag and mixing during sediment transfer across the Tian Shan piedmont caused by climate‐driven aggradation–incision cycles

et al. 2017

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“…; Jolivet et al. ). Unfortunately, these basins are poorly accessible and all those factors are very difficult to quantify in this region.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…; Jolivet et al. ). They cover intermediate scales that are complementary to those of other sediment budget approaches, both in space and time (Hinderer, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

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Denudation intensity and control in the Chinese Tian Shan: new constraints from mass balance on catchment‐alluvial fan systems

Guérit

Barrier

Jolivet

et al. 2016

Earth Surf Processes Landf

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Tectonics and climate are usually seen as the main controlling factors of denudation rates, which seem to rise with the tectonic activity and to decrease when the climate becomes drier. However, the low denudation rates observed in semi-arid to arid contexts are generally measured on orogenic plateaus where the respective influence of the flat relief and the dry climate cannot really be unravelled. The Chinese Tian Shan was chosen as a case study. In the northern piedmont of this mountain range, a series of well-preserved Quaternary alluvial fans offer the opportunity to perform a mass balance study at the scale of several catchment areas and several hundreds of thousands of years. Based on a geometrical reconstruction of these fans, the volumes of sediments exported out of 10 drainage basins during the Middle–Late Pleistocene (from ∼300 to ∼12 kyr) and the Holocene (from ∼12 kyr to present) have been estimated. From these volumes, an average denudation rate of ∼135 m/Myr was determined in the Tian Shan Range for the last 300 kyr. In agreement with other mass balances performed in the same area, the typical denudation intensity of the northern Tian Shan is thus of a few hundred meters per million years at most, regardless of the space and time scales considered. From a comparison with denudation rates in other mountain ranges throughout the world, we suggest that a dry climate can dramatically limit the denudation intensity even in active orogenic systems with a high topographic gradient like the Tian Shan. As a result, the time required to reach equilibrium between denudation and rock uplift in these systems could be extremely long (i.e. of more than several million years)

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“…Indeed, the geometrical reconstruction of a fan provides an estimate of its volume which, through mass balance, yields the average denudation rate of the catchment (Kiefer et al, 1997;Jayko, 2005;Jolivet et al, 2014;Guerit et al, 2016). Furthermore, when the river transports multiple grain sizes, it usually deposits the coarser sediment (gravel) near the fan apex and the finer sediment (sand) at its toe.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Self-similar growth of a bimodal laboratory fan

et al. 2017

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Abstract.Using laboratory experiments, we investigate the growth of an alluvial fan fed with two distinct granular materials. Throughout the growth of the fan, its surface maintains a radial segregation, with the less mobile sediment concentrated near the apex. Scanning the fan surface with a laser, we find that the transition between the proximal and distal deposits coincides with a distinct slope break. A radial cross section reveals that the stratigraphy records the signal of this segregation. To interpret these observations, we conceptualize the fan as a radially symmetric structure that maintains its geometry as it grows. When combined with slope measurements, this model proves consistent with the sediment mass balance and successfully predicts the slope of the proximal-distal transition as preserved in the fan stratigraphy. While the threshold-channel theory provides an order-of-magnitude estimate of the fan slopes, driven by the relatively high sediment discharge in our experimental system, the actual observed slopes are 3-5 times higher than those predicted by this theory.

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Unbalanced sediment budgets in the catchment–alluvial fan system of the Kuitun River (northern Tian Shan, China): Implications for mass-balance estimates, denudation and sedimentation rates in orogenic systems

Cited by 29 publications

References 71 publications

Lag and mixing during sediment transfer across the Tian Shan piedmont caused by climate‐driven aggradation–incision cycles

Lag and mixing during sediment transfer across the Tian Shan piedmont caused by climate‐driven aggradation–incision cycles

Denudation intensity and control in the Chinese Tian Shan: new constraints from mass balance on catchment‐alluvial fan systems

Self-similar growth of a bimodal laboratory fan

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