Low variability runoff inhibits coupling of climate, tectonics, and topography in the Greater Caucasus

Forte, Adam M.; Leonard, Joel S.; Rossi, Matthew W.; Whipple, Kelin X.; Heimsath, Arjun M.; Sukhishvili, Lasha; Godoladze, Tea; Kadirov, Fakhraddin

doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2022.117525

i

Low variability runoff inhibits coupling of climate, tectonics, and topography in the Greater Caucasus

2022
By Forte, Adam M. ; Leonard, Joel S. ; Rossi, Matthew W. ; ...

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Journal Title:

Earth and Planetary Science Letters
Personal Author:

Forte, Adam M. ; Leonard, Joel S. ; Rossi, Matthew W. ; Whipple, Kelin X. ; Heimsath, Arjun M. ; Sukhishvili, Lasha ; Godoladze, Tea ; Kadirov, Fakhraddin
NOAA Program & Office:

CIRES (Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences)
Description:

Hypothesized feedbacks between climate and tectonics are mediated by the relationship between topography and long-term erosion rates. While many studies show monotonic relationships between channel steepness and erosion rates, the degree of nonlinearity in this relationship varies by landscape. Mechanistically explaining controls on this relationship in natural settings is critical because highly nonlinear relationships imply low sensitivity between climate and tectonics. To this end, we present a coordinated analysis of cosmogenic 10Be concentrations in river sands paired with topographic, hydroclimatic, and tectonic data for the Greater Caucasus Mountains where topography is invariant along-strike despite large gradients in modern precipitation and convergence rates. We show that spatial patterns in erosion rates largely reflect regional tectonics with little sensitivity to mean precipitation or runoff. The nonlinearity in the erosion rate – steepness relationship may arise from very low runoff variability, which we attribute to the large contribution from snowmelt. Transitioning from rainfall- to snowmelt-driven runoff as mean elevation increases is common to many mid-latitude mountain ranges. The associated decrease in runoff variability may represent important, unrecognized dynamics inhibiting the sensitivity of tectonics to climate more broadly.
Keywords:

Earth And Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous) Geochemistry And Petrology Geophysics Space And Planetary Science Earth And Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous) Geochemistry And Petrology Space And Planetary Science Earth And Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous) Geochemistry And Petrology Space And Planetary Science
Source:

Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 584, 117525
DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2022.117525
ISSN:

0012-821X
Format:

PDF
Publisher:

Elsevier BV
Document Type:

Journal Article
Rights Information:

Accepted Manuscript
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Submitted
Main Document Checksum:

urn:sha256:830717a4580099f61a04481eddfb2227cb54d254fdc66c4bfb67c98bb86db742
Download URL:

https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/51901/noaa_51901_DS1.pdf
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[PDF - 41.67 MB ]

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