Late Pleistocene glacial transitions in North America altered major river drainages, as revealed by deep-sea sediment

Fildani, Andrea; Hessler, Angela M.; Mason, Cody C.; McKay, Matthew P.; Stöckli, Daniel F.

doi:10.1038/s41598-018-32268-7

Cited by 36 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…To further explore this observed variability in provenance signature between Holocene river and Pleistocene submarine fan samples, we applied a top-down unmixing algorithm (sensu Sharman and Johnstone, 2017;after Mason et al, 2017;Fildani et al, 2018) to quantify the relative contributions of zircons from tributary river components (parents) present in composite (daughter) mixtures, or the lower Amazon River and Amazon Fan. We selected published DZ samples (Campbell and Allen, 2008;Mapes, 2009;Pepper et al, 2016) based on their geographic locations within the Amazon drainage basin, with the goal of characterizing broad swaths of DZ terranes using modern river sands.…”

Section: Methods and Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Other studies have considered the controls on the timing of submarine fan activity (Covault and Graham, 2010;Maslin, 2009), sediment caliber and volumes delivered to submarine fans (Sweet and Blum, 2016), as well as sediment exhumation and transit rates and the role of river avulsions in sediment transfer to the deep sea (Blum et al, 2018). Provenance techniques applied to major river-to-submarine fan systems are a valuable tool to improve models for the controls on source-to-sink sediment routing system behavior over multi-millennial time scales (Fildani et al, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Amazon River and deep-sea fan represent a globally important end-member system for understanding land-to-sea sediment dynamics. Submarine fans have been shown to archive histories of output fluxes and onshore environmental change (Normark and Reid, 2003;Fildani et al, 2016;Hessler et al, 2018), and have been used to invert up-system climate forcings in glaciated continent-scale rivers (Clift et al, 2008;Fildani et al, 2016Fildani et al, , 2018Mason et al, 2017;Li et al, 2019). The Amazon catchment straddles equatorial latitudes and has dis-tinct sediment and detrital zircon (DZ) source terranes and physiography ( Fig.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Detrital zircons reveal sea-level and hydroclimate controls on Amazon River to deep-sea fan sediment transfer

Mason

Romans

Stöckli

et al. 2019

Geology

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We use new U-Pb detrital zircon (DZ) geochronology from the Pleistocene Amazon submarine fan (n = 1352 grains), integrated with onshore DZ age data, to propose a sedimentary model for sea level-modulated and hydroclimate-modulated sediment transfer in Earth's largest source-to-sink system. DZ ages from the modern Amazon River sediment display a progressive downstream dilution by older cratonic zircons, leading to the expectation of a submarine fan with high proportions of craton-derived sediment. Our new DZ age data from the submarine fan and mixture modeling suggest that higher proportions of sediment were supplied from the distant central Andes to the Amazon fan during the last two glacioeustatic lowstands, and thus the observed DZ age spectra of the modern lower Amazon River indicate a relative increase in craton-derived sediment during the Holocene. We interpret that during interglacials, when sea level was high and the submarine fan inactive, the lower Amazon River did not efficiently transfer sand-sized sediment to the margin and thus became enriched in craton-derived sediment. During sea-level lowstands, increased gradients and incision in the lower Amazon River due to base-level lowering resulted in enhanced connectivity and transfer of Andes-sourced zircons to the deep sea. These results are also consistent with interpreted patterns of Andean-Amazon hydroclimate anti-phasing (enhanced precipitation in the central Andes and increased aridity in the northern Amazon Basin) during the Last Glacial Maximum. Our results suggest that sand-sized sediment in the Amazon submarine fan records multi-millennial patterns of sea level and South American hydroclimate.

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Section: Methods and Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Detrital zircons reveal sea-level and hydroclimate controls on Amazon River to deep-sea fan sediment transfer

Mason

Romans

Stöckli

et al. 2019

Geology

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“…This provenance change was not due to eustatic sea-level fall, which would have equally affected the southern and northern margins of the WGOM. Rather, sediment supply from the north was facilitated through the periodic advance and retreat of the Laurentide and Cordilleran ice sheets, specifically: (1) the mostly mechanical erosion of both Rocky Mountain uplifts and interior lowlands (Bell and Laine, 1985;Dethier, 2001) and high-discharge meltwater cycles (Shakun et al, 2016), and (2) drainage rearrangement along the ice front (e.g., Missouri River diversion; Fildani et al, 2018).…”

Section: Glacial Override Of Tectonic Controls On Sediment Supplymentioning

confidence: 99%

Late Cenozoic cooling favored glacial over tectonic controls on sediment supply to the western Gulf of Mexico

Hessler¹,

Covault

Stöckli

et al. 2018

Geology

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Terrigenous marine sediment records the landscape response to climate and tectonic perturbations. Here, we determined the source of Miocene-Pleistocene debris in the western Gulf of Mexico (WGOM) to understand changes in sediment supply during a greenhouse-glacial transition. Sediment composition at Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) Sites 3, 87, and 89-91 shows a reversal in provenance following the onset of Pleistocene glaciation. During Miocene time, sediment was supplied to the deep WGOM from tectonically active, tropical highlands of southern Mexico, accumulating as sediment-gravity-flow deposits across broad deep-water fan systems. Then, following the mid-Pleistocene transition (ca. 0.7 Ma), the WGOM saw sustained (10 5 yr) influx of sediment from the north due to glacial erosion, high discharge, and expanded drainages across the Mississippi catchment. This major provenance shift points to the importance of glacial controls on marine sediment supply during late Cenozoic cooling.

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“…Although sediment provenance data have been an integral component of paleogeographic and sediment routing studies for decades (Dickinson et al, ), the endurance of DZ grains has greatly augmented our ability to assess complex sedimentation patterns and histories, especially those that include sediment recycling and/or long transport distances. A recent example is the use of large DZ data sets from North American continental margins to interpret the Cretaceous to modern paleohydrography of the continent (Blum & Pecha, ; Fildani et al, ; Sharman et al, ; among others).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Orogenic Recycling of Detrital Zircons Characterizes Age Distributions of North American Cordilleran Strata

Schwartz

Weislogel

2019

Tectonics

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Detrital zircon (DZ) analysis has become the standard tool for source-to-sink sediment routing studies at many spatial and temporal scales. In North American source-to-sink studies, DZ distributions are commonly classified according to the presence/absence and proportions of DZ age groups associated with North American crustal provinces as well as peri-Gondwanan and Cordilleran terranes. Although such a classification scheme is descriptive, these age groups typically do not uniquely identify most recent DZ source areas. Using a compilation of >19,000 individual DZ ages for Mesoproterozoic-Paleogene strata of the northern Rocky Mountains, including 2,053 new analyses from the Paleogene Renova Formation and its equivalents in southwestern Montana, we demonstrate periodic derivation of first-cycle DZ from crystalline sources and widespread recycling of poly-cycle DZ from sedimentary sources over multimillion-year timescales. Results show that (1) DZ age distributions become increasingly complex between Mesoproterozoic and Paleogene time with the introduction of new DZ sources to the study area, but (2) once an age group appears in the northern Rocky Mountains stratigraphy, grains of that age persist up-section. These trends show that most DZ age groups are spatiotemporally ubiquitous and nonunique. We largely attribute this to periodic, tectonically induced recycling of DZ into progressively younger sedimentary systems, rather than prolonged derivation of DZ from crystalline basement sources, a trend that reflects the growth of increasingly complex topography associated with the North American Cordillera.

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Late Pleistocene glacial transitions in North America altered major river drainages, as revealed by deep-sea sediment

Cited by 36 publications

References 38 publications

Detrital zircons reveal sea-level and hydroclimate controls on Amazon River to deep-sea fan sediment transfer

Detrital zircons reveal sea-level and hydroclimate controls on Amazon River to deep-sea fan sediment transfer

Late Cenozoic cooling favored glacial over tectonic controls on sediment supply to the western Gulf of Mexico

Orogenic Recycling of Detrital Zircons Characterizes Age Distributions of North American Cordilleran Strata

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