No abstract

We use in situ‐produced and meteoric 10Be, analyzed in soils from 28 pits on four hillcrest‐parallel transects along a 14° hillslope in the Great Smoky Mountains, North Carolina, as tracers of soil production and transport. We rely upon amalgamation both to investigate and smooth spatial variability in 10Be concentrations. Lidar indicates that the hillslope is topographically complex and that soil is moved downslope diffusively until it encounters the ephemeral channel network and is rapidly exported. In situ‐produced 10Be, measured in depth profiles, indicates that over millennial timescales, soils are mixed above the soil‐saprolite boundary. In contrast, meteoric 10Be concentrations increase with depth and are correlated to concurrent increases of dithionite‐extractable Al and pH, observations explained by similar Al and Be mobility in the soil. The concentrations of both meteoric and in situ‐produced 10Be increase downslope proportional to the maximum soil particle path length. The data suggest virtual downslope soil velocities of 1.1–1.7 cm yr−1 in a well‐mixed active transport layer ∼60 cm thick. The thickness of this transport layer is constant downslope and depends on the rooting depth and consequent root wad thickness of downed trees on the slope, both of which reflect depth to the soil/saprolite boundary. Both meteoric and in situ‐produced 10Be suggest that soil production is balanced by surface denudation at rates between 10 and 13 m Myr−1. Soil residence times on the slope range from 21 to 33 kyr based on the meteoric 10Be inventories. Major element geochemical analysis suggests little if any elemental loss during soil transport downslope.

Using 10Be and 26Al measured in sediment and bedrock, we quantify rates of upland erosion and sediment supply to a small basin in northwestern New Mexico. This and many other similar basins in the southwestern United States have been affected by cycles of arroyo incision and backfilling several times in the past few millennia. The sediment generation (275 ± 65 g m−2 yr−1) and bedrock equivalent lowering rates (102 ± 24 m myr−1) we determine are sufficient to support at least three arroyo cycles in the past 3,000 years, consistent with rates calculated from a physical sediment budget within the basin and regional rates determined using other techniques. Nuclide concentrations measured in different sediment sources and reservoirs suggest that the arroyo is a good spatial and temporal integrator of sediment and associated nuclide concentrations from throughout the basin, that the basin is in steady-state, and that nuclide concentration is independent of sediment grain size. Differences between nuclide concentrations measured in sediment sources and reservoirs reflect sediment residence times and indicate that subcolluvial bedrock weathering on hillslopes supplies more sediment to the basin than erosion of exposed bedrock.

Figure 1. Location map. Black box represents location of Chemehuevi Mountain piedmont, eastern Mojave Desert.

Cosmogenic nuclide concentrations measured on abandoned fan surfaces along the Mojave section of the San Andreas Fault suggest that sediment is generated, transported, and removed from the fans on the order of 30–40 kyr. We measured in situ produced cosmogenic 10Be, and in some cases 26Al, in boulders (n = 15), surface sediment (n = 15), and one depth profile (n = 9). Nuclide concentrations in surface sediments and boulders underestimate fan ages, suggesting that 10Be accumulation is largely controlled by the geomorphic processes that operate on the surfaces of the fans and not by their ages.Field observations, grain-size distribution, and cosmogenic nuclide data suggest that over time, boulders weather into grus and the bar sediments diffuse into the adjacent swales. As fans grow older the relief between bars and swales decreases, the sediment transport rate from bars to swales decreases, and the surface processes that erode the fan become uniform over the entire fan surface. The nuclide data therefore suggest that, over time, the difference in 10Be concentration between bars and swales increases to a maximum until the topographic relief between bars and swales is minimized, resulting in a common surface lowering rate and common 10Be concentrations across the fan. During this phase, the entire fan is lowered homogeneously at a rate of 10–15 mm kyr−1.