Journal article

Lowland river responses to intraplate tectonism and climate forcing quantified with luminescence and cosmogenic 10Be

JD Jansen, GC Nanson, TJ Cohen, T Fujioka, D Fabel, JR Larsen, AT Codilean, DM Price, HH Bowman, JH May, LA Gliganic

Earth and Planetary Science Letters | ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV | Published : 2013

Abstract

Intraplate tectonism has produced large-scale folding that steers regional drainage systems, such as the 1600km-long Cooper Ck, en route to Australia's continental depocentre at Lake Eyre. We apply cosmogenic 10Be exposure dating in bedrock, and luminescence dating in sediment, to quantify the erosional and depositional response of Cooper Ck where it incises the rising Innamincka Dome. The detachment of bedrock joint-blocks during extreme floods governs the minimum rate of incision (17.4±6.5mm/ky) estimated using a numerical model of episodic erosion calibrated with our 10Be measurements. The last big-flood phase occurred no earlier than ~112-121ka. Upstream of the Innamincka Dome long-term ..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Grants

Awarded by Australian Research Council


Funding Acknowledgements

This research was funded by a UK Natural Environment and Research Council fellowship (NE/EO14143/1) to Jansen, and Australian Research Council Discovery Grants (DP1096911, DP130104023) to Nanson and colleagues. We thank Sheng Xu for conducting the AMS measurements at the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre, RJ. Wasson for comments on an early draft, and E.W. Portenga for an insightful review.