Transformation of tectonic and climatic signals from source to sedimentary archive

Armitage, John; Duller, Robert A.; Whittaker, Alexander C.; Allen, Philip A.

doi:10.1038/ngeo1087

Cited by 257 publications

(384 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Perturbations in fluid-flow velocity, sediment supply and land subsidence occur due to changes in land use, climate and tectonics, which create perturbations that propagate through depositional landscapes over diverse scales. We hypothesize that, in addition to sufficient accommodation and other factors recognized for long-term preservation of the sedimentary record 13,14 , identification of the characteristic length scales of morphodynamic feedbacks (Fig. 4) allows for quantitative bounds on depositional systems that have the potential to preserve environmental perturbations of a certain scale.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1). The latter far exceeds historical records of sediment flux (and its variability), and therefore our understanding of the role of morphodynamic feedbacks in environmental signal preservation is based largely on small-scale physical models 10,15 and numerical experiments 13,[15][16][17][18] . Nonetheless, upscaling results from analogue models to natural depositional systems incorporates uncertainties, and consequently, reconstructions of the sedimentary archives on both the Earth and the Mars routinely neglect any morphodynamic filtering (for example, Zhang et al 7 ).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Reconstructions of Earth's past surface behaviour from the sedimentary record remain controversial [7][8][9] , however, in part because we lack a quantitative framework to deconvolve internal dynamics of sedimenttransport systems from environmental signal preservation [10][11][12] . Although sedimentary deposits have been shown to contain a rich archive of environmental (allogenic) conditions and their changes 7,13 (that is, tectonics, climatic, sea level, anthropogenic), there is increasing recognition of the role of self-organized (autogenic) dynamics of sediment-transport systems in obscuring or even obliterating the record of externally forced environmental signals [10][11][12]14 . Numerical and physical experiments [10][11][12][14][15][16][17][18] and field investigations 8,19 indicate that the primary signal in physical stratigraphy can in cases be the record of the nonlinear sediment-transport dynamics, played out through geologic time.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Quantitative bounds on morphodynamics and implications for reading the sedimentary record

2014

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Sedimentary rocks are the archives of environmental conditions and ancient planetary surface processes that led to their formation. Reconstructions of Earth's past surface behaviour from the physical sedimentary record remain controversial, however, in part because we lack a quantitative framework to deconvolve internal dynamics of sediment-transport systems from environmental signal preservation. Internal dynamics of landscapes-a consequence of the coupling between bed topography, sediment transport and flow dynamics (morphodynamics)-result in regular and quasiperiodic landforms that abound on the Earth and other planets. Here, using theory and a data compilation of morphodynamic landforms that span a wide range of terrestrial, marine and planetary depositional systems, we show that the advection length for settling sediment sets bounds on the scales over which internal landscape dynamics operate. These bounds provide a universal palaeohydraulic reconstruction tool on planetary surfaces and allow for quantitative identification of depositional systems that may preserve tectonic, climatic and anthropogenic signals.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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Quantitative bounds on morphodynamics and implications for reading the sedimentary record

2014

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“…For instance, an increase in initial sediment discharge decreases the rate of initial grain size fining (Duller et al, 2010). Tectonic uplift in the source catchment will initially increase grain size at the proximal fan while increased precipitation will increase in the lateral extent of a coarse grained fan (Armitage et al, 2011). This is particularly relevant to extensional, strike-slip and foreland tectonic settings where the terrestrial sink is typically bounded by numerous but smaller high relief source catchment regions.…”

Section: Source Catchment Influence On the Terrestrial Sinkmentioning

confidence: 99%

The distribution of rivers to terrestrial sinks: Implications for sediment routing systems

2018

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Empirical observations used to constrain controls on large global modern river systems typically use catchment delineations depicting drainage patterns of rivers to oceans. A key component in the spatial and temporal discharge of sediment to oceans are terrestrial sinks that act as buffers and sequestrate sediment and nutrients along its route, however, a global catchment model depicting the drainage patterns of rivers to terrestrial sinks does not currently exist. We propose a new global terrestrial sink catchment (GTSC) database that delineates the distribution of high-resolution global river networks in relation to mapped modern terrestrial sinks. The results show a distinct set of characteristics defining the morphology, climate, lithology and sediment discharge of source catchments contributing to terrestrial sinks by tectonic regime. Foreland, intracratonic, extensional and strike-slip tectonic regimes are characterized by small, numerous, densely spaced and wide source catchments where the largest source catchment contributes on average 50%, 43%, 36% and 36%, respectively, of the total suspended sediment load. Forearc and passive margin tectonic regimes are characterized by few, large source catchments where the largest source catchment contributes on average 64% and 63% of the total suspended sediment load. In contrast to forearc and passive margin settings, foreland, intracratonic, extensional and strike-slip settings show source catchments with a range of lithologies and a dominance of seasonal climates, which will likely increase along-strike variability in sediment discharge to their terrestrial sink. The variability of along-strike sediment discharge, sediment composition and source-derived perturbations in sediment discharge to the terrestrial sink will influence the sediments stored and propagation of sediment discharge signals. On geological timescales, marine sedimentary successions and the sediment routing system, likely represents the characteristics of remobilized terrestrial sink sediments during millennial scale perturbations in water discharge. The GTSC database provides a valuable resource to further our quantitative understanding on the role of the terrestrial sink on the broader sediment routing system.

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“…Erosion and sediment transport in rivers affect human river management (e.g., Graf et al, 2010), landscape mass balance (Armitage et al, 2011), and global biogeochemical cycling (e.g., Hilton, 2017). Interest in the effects of river erosion on landscape change over all spatial and temporal scales has led to the widespread proliferation of numerical models for channel evolution.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The SPACE 1.0 model: a Landlab component for 2-D calculation of sediment transport, bedrock erosion, and landscape evolution

2017

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Abstract. Models of landscape evolution by river erosion are often either transport-limited (sediment is always available but may or may not be transportable) or detachmentlimited (sediment must be detached from the bed but is then always transportable). While several models incorporate elements of, or transition between, transport-limited and detachment-limited behavior, most require that either sediment or bedrock, but not both, are eroded at any given time. Modeling landscape evolution over large spatial and temporal scales requires a model that can (1) transition freely between transport-limited and detachment-limited behavior, (2) simultaneously treat sediment transport and bedrock erosion, and (3) run in 2-D over large grids and be coupled with other surface process models. We present SPACE (stream power with alluvium conservation and entrainment) 1.0, a new model for simultaneous evolution of an alluvium layer and a bedrock bed based on conservation of sediment mass both on the bed and in the water column. The model treats sediment transport and bedrock erosion simultaneously, embracing the reality that many rivers (even those commonly defined as "bedrock" rivers) flow over a partially alluviated bed. SPACE improves on previous models of bedrockalluvial rivers by explicitly calculating sediment erosion and deposition rather than relying on a flux-divergence (Exner) approach. The SPACE model is a component of the Landlab modeling toolkit, a Python-language library used to create models of Earth surface processes. Landlab allows efficient coupling between the SPACE model and components simulating basin hydrology, hillslope evolution, weathering, lithospheric flexure, and other surface processes. Here, we first derive the governing equations of the SPACE model from existing sediment transport and bedrock erosion formulations and explore the behavior of local analytical solutions for sediment flux and alluvium thickness. We derive steadystate analytical solutions for channel slope, alluvium thickness, and sediment flux, and show that SPACE matches predicted behavior in detachment-limited, transport-limited, and mixed conditions. We provide an example of landscape evolution modeling in which SPACE is coupled with hillslope diffusion, and demonstrate that SPACE provides an effective framework for simultaneously modeling 2-D sediment transport and bedrock erosion.

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Transformation of tectonic and climatic signals from source to sedimentary archive

Cited by 257 publications

References 26 publications

Quantitative bounds on morphodynamics and implications for reading the sedimentary record

Quantitative bounds on morphodynamics and implications for reading the sedimentary record

The distribution of rivers to terrestrial sinks: Implications for sediment routing systems

The SPACE 1.0 model: a Landlab component for 2-D calculation of sediment transport, bedrock erosion, and landscape evolution

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