Abstract. The impact of glaciers on the Quaternary evolution of mountainous landscapes remains controversial. Although in situ or bedrock low-temperature thermochronology offers insights on past rock exhumation and landscape erosion, the method also suffers from potential biases due to the difficulty of sampling bedrock buried under glaciers. Detrital thermochronology attempts to overcome this issue by sampling sediments at e.g. the catchment outlet, a component of which may originate from beneath the ice. However, detrital age distributions not only reflect the catchment exhumation, but also spatially variable patterns and rates of surface erosion and sediment transport. In this study, we use a new version of a glacial landscape evolution model, iSOSIA, to address the effect of erosion and sediment transport by ice on the form of synthetic detrital age distributions. Sediments are tracked as Lagrangian particles formed by bedrock erosion, and their transport is restricted to ice or hillslope processes, neglecting subglacial hydrology, until they are deposited. We base our model on the Tiedemann Glacier (British Columbia, Canada), which has simple morphological characteristics, such as a linear form and no connectivity to large tributary glaciers. Synthetic detrital age distributions are generated by specifying an erosion history, then sampling sediment particles at the frontal moraine of the modelled glacier. Results show that sediment sources, reflecting different processes such as glacier and hillslope erosion, can have distinct bedrock age distribution signatures, and estimating such distributions should help to identify predominant sources in the sampling site. However, discrepancies between the detrital and bedrock age distributions occur due to (i) the selective storage of a large proportion of sediments in small tributary glaciers and in lateral moraines, (ii) the large range of particle transport times due to varying transport lengths and strong variability of glacier ice velocity, (iii) the heterogeneous pattern of erosion, and (iv) the advective nature of glacier sediment transport along ice streamlines. This last factor leads to a poor lateral mixing of particle detrital signatures inside the frontal moraine, and then local sampling of the frontal moraine is likely to reflect local sources upstream. Therefore, sampling randomly across the moraine is preferred for a more representative view of the catchment age distribution. Finally, systematic comparisons between synthetic (U-Th)/He and fission track detrital ages, with different bedrock age-elevation profiles and different relative age uncertainties, show that the nature of the age-elevation relationship and age uncertainties largely control the ability to track sediment sources in the detrital record. However, depending on the erosion pattern spatially, qualitative first-order information may still be extracted from a thermochronological system with high uncertainties (>30 %). Overall, our results demonstrate that detrital age distributions in glaciated catchments are strongly impacted not only by erosion and exhumation but also by sediment transport processes and their spatial variability. However, when combined with bedrock age distributions, detrital thermochronology offers a novel means to constrain the transport pattern and time of sediment particles.

Abstract. The impact of glaciers on the Quaternary evolution of mountainous landscapes remains controversial. Although in situ low-temperature thermochronology offers insights on past rock exhumation and landscape erosion, the methods also suffer from biases due to the difficulty of sampling bedrock buried under glaciers. Detrital thermochronology attempts to bypass this issue by sampling sediments, at e.g. the catchment outlet, that may originate from beneath the ice. However, the age distributions resulting from detrital thermochronology do not only reflect the catchment exhumation, but also the patterns and rates of surface erosion and sediment transport. In this study, we use a new version of a glacial landscape evolution model, iSOSIA, to address the effect of erosion and sediment transport by ice on the form of synthetic detrital age distributions. Sediments are tracked as Lagrangian particles which can be formed by bedrock erosion, transported by ice or hillslope processes and deposited. We apply our model to the Tiedemann glacier (British Columbia, Canada), which has simple morphological characteristics, such as a linear form and no connectivity with large tributary glaciers. Synthetic detrital age distributions are generated by specifying an erosion history, then sampling sediment particles at the frontal moraine of the modelled glacier. An assessment of sediment transport shows that 1500 years are required to reach an equilibrium for detrital particle age distributions, due to the large range of particle transport times from their sources to the frontal moraine. Next, varying sampling locations and strategies at the glacier front leads to varying detrital SPDFs, even at equilibrium. These discrepancies are related to (i) the selective storage of a large proportion of sediments in small tributary glaciers and in lateral moraines, (ii) the large range of particle transport times, due to varying transport lengths and to a strong variability of glacier ice velocity, (iii) the heterogeneous pattern of erosion, (iv) the advective nature of glacier sediment transport, along ice streamlines, that leads to a poor lateral mixing of particle detrital signatures inside the frontal moraine. Finally, systematic comparisons between (U-Th)/He and fission track detrital ages, with different age-elevation profiles and relative age uncertainties, show that (i) the nature of the age-elevation relationship largely controls the ability to track sediment sources, and (ii) qualitative first-order information may still be extracted from thermochronological system with high uncertainties (> 30 %) depending on erosion pattern. Overall, our results demonstrate that detrital age distributions in glaciated catchments are strongly impacted not only by erosion and exhumation but also by sediment transport processes and their spatial variability. Combined with bedrock age distributions, detrital thermochronology offers a means to constrain the transport pattern and time of sediment particles. However, our results also suggest that detrital age distributions of glacial features like frontal moraines, are likely to reflect a transient case as the time required to reach detrital thermochronological equilibrium is of the order of the short-timescale glacier dynamics variability, as little ice ages or recent glaciers recessions.

Observations in East CentralGreenland show that lithology controls the width of fjords with softer rocks leading to wider fjords • Glacial erosion models reproduce the observations with a quarrying law but not when varying the erodibility factor in an abrasion law • The lithological contribution to glacial erosion law needs more careful description Supporting Information:Supporting Information may be found in the online version of this article.

<p>The impact of glaciers on the Quaternary evolution of mountainous landscapes remains controversial. While in-situ low-temperature thermochronology offers insights on past rock exhumation and landscape erosion, it also suffers from biases due to the difficulty of sampling bedrocks buried under the ice of glaciers. Detrital thermochronology attempts to bypass this issue by sampling sediments at, e.g. the catchment outlet, that may originate from beneath the ice. However, the age distribution resulting from detrital thermochronology does not only inform on the catchment exhumation, but also on the patterns and rates of surface erosion and sediment transport. In this study, we use a new version of a glacial landscape evolution model, iSOSIA to address the role of erosion and sediment transport by the ice on the form of synthetic detrital age distributions and thus, for inferred catchment erosion from such data. Sediments are tracked as Lagrangian particles that can be formed by bedrock erosion, transported by ice or hillslope processes and deposited. We apply our model to the Tiedemann glacier (British Columbia, Canada), which has simple morphological characteristics, such as a straight form and no connectivity with large tributary glaciers. Synthetic detrital age distributions are generated by specifying an erosion history, then sampling sediment particles at the frontal moraine of the modelled glacier. The detrital ages are represented as synoptic probability density functions (SPDFs).</p><p>A characterization of sediment transport shows that 1500 years are required to reach an equilibrium for detrital particles age distributions, due to the large range of particle transport times from their sources to the frontal moraine. Second, varying sampling locations and strategies at the glacier front lead to varying detrital SPDFs, even at equilibrium. These discrepancies are related to (i) the selective storage of a large proportion of sediments in small tributary glaciers and in lateral moraines, (ii) the large range of particle transport times, due to varying transport lengths and to a strong variability of glacier ice velocity, (iii) the heterogeneous pattern of erosion, (iv) the advective nature of glacier sediment transport along ice streamlines that leads to a poor lateral mixing of particle detrital signatures inside the frontal moraine. Third, systematic comparisons between (U-Th)/He and fission track detrital ages, with different age-elevation profiles and relative age uncertainties, show that (i) the age increasing rate with elevation largely controls the ability to track sediment sources, and (ii) qualitative first-order information about distribution of erosion may still be extracted from thermochronological system with high variable uncertainties (> 30 %). Overall, our distributions in glaciated catchments are strongly impacted by erosion and transport processes and by their spatial variability. Combined with bedrock age distributions, detrital thermochronology can offer a means to constrain the transport pattern and time of sediment particles. However, results also suggest that detrital age distributions of glacial features like frontal moraines, are likely to reflect a transient case as the time required to reach detrital thermochronological equilibrium is of the order of the short-timescale glaciers dynamic variability, as little ice ages or recent glaciers recessions.</p>