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The crest of the Andes—the trace of the highest mountain topography—weaves back and forth, in places near the coastline, in others farther inland. Its position reflects the asymmetric distribution of orogen mass and coincides with asymmetry of orographic precipitation. This coincidence is thought to reflect a primary influence of orographic precipitation on accumulated orogenic mass whereby the more erosive (wetter) side promotes crest migration toward the less erosive (drier) side. However, whether this remains the case after excluding tectonic controls on the size and asymmetry of the wedge is an open question. We assessed relationships between precipitation, erosion rates, and the macromorphology of the Andes. We find that precipitation rates cannot sufficiently explain orogen asymmetry after statistically controlling for the age or dip of the Nazca slab. Slab age and dip are known to primarily affect mountain building in the Andes by impacting stress and strain propagation into the retro-arc region, thus better explaining the position of the mountain chain within the orogenic wedge. Accordingly, using basin-wide erosion rate, topographic, and precipitation data, we find that precipitation possibly influences erosional efficiency in semi-arid Andean landscapes but falls short in explaining the variability of erosion rates in regions of high orographic precipitation. We conclude that the orographic effect cannot change the Andean macromorphology that is set by bottom-up tectonic processes.

We show that long-recognized seismicity in the central Virginia seismic zone of the eastern North American intraplate setting arises primarily from tectonic processes predicted by new, full...

The rise of a mountain range affects moisture circulation in the atmosphere and water runoff across the land surface, modifying the distribution of precipitation and drainage patterns in its vicinity. Water routing in turn affects erosion on hillslopes and incision in river channels on surrounding mountain ranges. In central Guatemala, two parallel, closely spaced mountain ranges formed during two consecutive pulses of uplift, the first between 12 and 7 Ma (Sierra de Chuacús–Sierra de las Minas), and the second after 7 Ma (Altos de Cuchumatanes). We explore the climatic and tectonic processes through which the rise of the most recent range drove the slowing of river incision and hillslope erosion over the previously uplifted range. The 40Ar/39Ar dating of perched volcanic deposits documents the sequential rise and incision of these mountain ranges. Terrestrial cosmogenic 10Be in river sediments indicates that currently hillslopes in the older range erode more slowly than in the younger range (20–150 vs. 300 m Myr−1). These differences mimic the current distribution of precipitation, with the younger range intercepting the atmospheric moisture before it reaches the older range. River channel steepness and deformation of paleovalleys in the new range further indicate that the younger range has been rising faster than the older range up to today. We review how atmospheric moisture interception and river long-profile adjustment to the rise of the new range have contributed to the decline of erosion rates over the old range. We also explore the consequences of this decline and of aridification on the topographic evolution of the older range. The older range undergoes a slow topographic decay, dominated by backwearing, by the stacking of slowly migrating erosion waves along the mountain flanks, and by the formation of pediments around its base. The morphology of the old range is therefore transitioning from that of a front range to that of a dry interior range.

Geoscience organizations shape the discipline. They influence attitudes and expectations, set standards, and provide benefits to their members. Today, racism and discrimination limit the participation of, and promote hostility towards, members of minoritized groups within these critical geoscience spaces. This is particularly harmful for Black, Indigenous, and other people of color in geoscience and is further exacerbated along other axes of marginalization, including disability status and gender identity. Here we present a twenty-point anti-racism plan that organizations can implement to build an inclusive, equitable and accessible geoscience community. Enacting it will combat racism, discrimination, and the harassment of all members., Racism thrives in geoscience. We present an antiracism plan to support the recruitment, retention and success of Black, Indigenous, and other people of color in geoscience. Our action plan can be adapted by any organization to remove barriers to participation for all marginalized geoscientists.

Continental sedimentation was widespread across the Central Anatolian Plateau in Miocene–Pliocene time, during the early stages of plateau uplift. Today, however, most sediment produced on the plateau is dispersed by a well-integrated drainage and released into surrounding marine depocenters. Residual long-term (106–107 yr) sediment storage on the plateau is now restricted to a few closed catchments. Lacustrine sedimentation was widespread in the Miocene–Pliocene depocenters. Today, it is also restricted to the residual closed catchments. The present-day association of closed catchments, long-term sediment storage, and lacustrine sedimentation suggests that the Miocene–Pliocene sedimentation also occurred in closed catchments. The termination of sedimentation across the plateau would therefore mark the opening of these closed catchments, their integration, and the formation of the present-day drainage. By combining newly dated volcanic markers with previously dated sedimentary sequences, we show that this drainage integration occurred remarkably rapidly, within 1.5 m.y., at the turn of the Pliocene. The evolution of stream incision documented by these markers and newly obtained 10Be erosion rates allow us to discriminate the respective contributions of three potential processes to drainage integration, namely, the capture of closed catchments by rivers draining the outer slopes of the plateau, the overflow of closed lakes, and the avulsion of closed catchments. Along the southern plateau margin, rivers draining the southern slope of the Central Anatolian Plateau expanded into the plateau interior; however, only a small amount of drainage integration was achieved by this process. Instead, avulsion and/or overflow between closed catchments achieved most of the integration, and these top-down processes left a distinctive sedimentary signal in the form of terminal lacustrine limestone sequences. In the absence of substantial regional climate wetting during the early Pliocene, we propose that two major tectonic events triggered drainage integration, separately or in tandem: the uplift of the Central Anatolian Plateau and the tectonic completion of the Anatolian microplate. Higher surface uplift of the eastern Central Anatolian Plateau relative to the western Central Anatolian Plateau promoted more positive water balances in the eastern catchments, higher water discharge, and larger sediment fluxes. Overflow/avulsion in some of the eastern catchments triggered a chain of avulsions and/or overflows, sparking sweeping integration across the plateau. Around 5 Ma, the inception of the full escape of the Anatolian microplate led to the disruption of the plateau surface by normal and strike-slip faults. Fault scarps partitioned large catchments fed by widely averaged sediment and water influxes into smaller catchments with more contrasted water balances and sediment fluxes. The evolution of the Central Anatolian Plateau shows that top-down processes of integration can outcompete erosion of outer plateau slopes to reintegrate plateau interior drainages, and this is overlooked in current models, in which drainage evolution is dominated by bottom-up integration. Top-down integration has the advantage that it can be driven by more subtle changes in climatic and tectonic boundary conditions than bottom-up integration.

Meteoric 10 Be ( 10 Be met ) concentrations in soil profiles have great potential as a geochronometer and a tracer of Earth surface processes, particularly in fine-grained soils lacking quartz that would preclude the use of in situ produced 10 Be ( 10 Be in situ ). One prerequisite for using this technique for accurately calculating rates and dates is constraining the delivery, or flux, of 10 Be met to a site. However, few studies to date have quantified long-term (i.e., millennial) delivery rates, and none have determined a delivery rate for an eroding soil. In this study, we compared existing concentrations of 10 Be in situ with new measurements of 10 Be met in eroding soils sampled from the same depth profiles to calibrate a long-term 10 Be met delivery rate. We did so on the Pinedale ( ∼ 21–25 kyr) and Bull Lake ( ∼ 140 kyr) glacial moraines at Fremont Lake, Wyoming (USA), where age, grain sizes, weathering indices, and soil properties are known, as are erosion and denudation rates calculated from 10 Be in situ . After ensuring sufficient beryllium retention in each profile, solving for the delivery rate of 10 Be met , and normalizing for paleomagnetic and solar intensity variations over the Holocene, we calculate 10 Be met fluxes of 1.46 ( ± 0.20) × 10 6 atoms cm −2 yr −1 and 1.30 ( ± 0.48) × 10 6 atoms cm −2 yr −1 to the Pinedale and Bull Lake moraines, respectively, and compare these values to two widely used 10 Be met delivery rate estimation methods that substantially differ for this site. Accurately estimating the 10 Be met flux using these methods requires a consideration of spatial scale and temporally varying parameters (i.e., paleomagnetic field intensity, solar modulation) to ensure the most realistic estimates of 10 Be met -derived erosion rates in future studies.

Over the last decade, an increasing number of studies have used soundscapes to address diverse ecological questions. Sound represents one of the few sources of information capable of providing in situ insights into processes occurring within opaque soil matrices. To date, the use of soundscapes for soil macrofauna monitoring has been experimentally tested only in controlled laboratory environments. Here we assess the validity of laboratory predictions and explore the use of soil soundscape proxies for monitoring soil macrofauna (i.e., earthworm) activities in an outdoor context. In a common garden experiment in northern Sweden, we constructed outdoor mesocosm plots (N = 36) containing two different Arctic vegetation types (meadow and heath) and introduced earthworms to half of these plots. Earthworms substantially altered the ambient soil soundscape under both vegetation types, as measured by both traditional soundscape indices and frequency band power levels, although their acoustic impacts were expressed differently in heath versus meadow soils. While these findings support the as-of-yet untapped promise of using belowground soundscape analyses to monitor soil ecosystem health, direct acoustic emissions from earthworm activities appear to be an unlikely proxy for tracking worm activities at daily timescales. Instead, earthworms indirectly altered the soil soundscape by 're-engineering' the soil matrix: an effect that was dependent on vegetation type. Our findings suggest that long-term (i.e., seasonal) earthworm activities in natural soil settings can likely be monitored indirectly via their impacts on soundscape measures and acoustic indices. Analyzing soil soundscapes may enable larger-scale monitoring of high-latitude soils and is directly applicable to the specific case of earthworm invasions within Arctic soils, which has recently been identified as a potential threat to the resilience of high-latitude ecosystems. Soil soundscapes could also offer a novel means to monitor soils and soil-plant-faunal interactions in situ across diverse pedogenic, agronomic, and ecological systems.

We report previously unpublished evidence for a Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS 3; 60–26 ka) glacial outburst flood in the Torngat Mountains (northern Quebec/Labrador, Canada). We present 10Be cosmogenic exposure ages from legacy fieldwork for a glacial lake shoreline with evidence for outburst flooding in the Torngat Mountains, with a minimum age of 36 ± 3 ka (we consider the most likely age, corrected for burial, to be ~56 ± 3 ka). This shoreline position and age can potentially constrain the Laurentide Ice Sheet margin in the Torngat Mountains. This region, considered a site of glacial inception, has no published dated geologic constraints for high-elevation MIS 3 ice margins. We estimate the freshwater flux associated with the inferred glacial outburst flood using high-resolution digital elevation maps corrected for glacial isostatic adjustment. Using assumptions about the ice-dammed locations we find that a freshwater flood volume of 1.14 × 1012 m3 could have entered the Hudson Strait. This glacial outburst flood volume could have contributed to surface ocean freshening to cause a measurable meltwater signal in δ18O records, but would not necessarily have been associated with substantial ice rafted debris. Future work is required to refine estimates of the size and timing of such a glacial outburst flood. Nevertheless, we outline testable hypotheses about the Laurentide Ice Sheet and glacial outburst floods, including possible implications for Heinrich events and glacial inception in North America, that can be assessed with additional fieldwork and cosmogenic measurements.

The presence of a mountain affects the circulation of water in the atmosphere and over the land surface. These effects are felt over some distance, beyond the extent of the mountain, controlling precipitation delivery and river incision over surrounding landmasses. The rise of a new mountain range therefore affects the erosion of pre-existing mountains located in close proximity. We document here this phenomenon in the mountains of Central Guatemala. The 40Ar-39Ar dating of lava flows shows that two parallel, closely spaced mountain ranges formed during two consecutive pulses of single-stepped uplift, one from 12 to 7 Ma, and the second one since 7 Ma. The distribution of erosion rates derived from the analysis of detrital cosmogenic 10Be in river sediments shows that the younger range erodes faster (~300 m/My) than the older one (20–150 m/My), and that erosion correlates with the amount of precipitation. Moisture tracking form the Caribbean Sea is intercepted by the younger range, which casts a rain shadow over the older one. The analysis of river long-profiles provides a record of longer-term interactions between the two ranges. The rivers that drain the older range were diverted by the younger range during the early stages of its rise. A few rivers were able to maintain their course across the young range, through profile steepening, but incision completely stalled along their upper reaches, upstream of the younger range. As a result, the older range has been passively uplifted, and entered a phase of a slow topographic decay: pediments have formed along its base, while ancient upstream-migrating waves of erosion, located farther up the mountain flanks, have almost stopped migrating. Aridification and cessation of river incision together explain the slowing down of erosion over the older range. They represent top-down and bottom-up processes whereby the younger range controls erosion over the older one. These controls are regarded as instrumental in the nucleation and enlargement of orogenic plateaus forming above continental accretionary wedges.

International audience; Seminal research into geomorphic shaping of landscapes by emerging groundwater suggest that the relationships governing channel form and incision rate are distinct from other fluvial systems (Howard, 1995; Dunne, 1980, 1990). While some recent work has connected these models to natural settings (Abrams et al., 2009; Petroff et al., 2011), other studies have shown that seepage erosion may be erroneously invoked in landscapes shaped by flooding and overland flow (Lamb et al., 2006, 2007). We investigate the impact of seepage erosion on the geomorphology of a tropical mountain watershed, the Rio Blanco in the Luquillo Mountains of northern Puerto Rico. We focus on a population of amphitheater-shaped channels that incise into deeply weathered saprolite profiles in the upland reaches of the watershed, where the river is disconnected from regional base-level lowering (Brocard et al., 2015, 2016). We measured high rates of baseflow from springs feeding these catchments, despite their small drainage areas. We constructed an empirical model relating baseflow discharge to catchment area within the watershed. We quantified long-term (103-104 yrs) catchment erosion from 10Be in sediment and measured the short-term volumetric flux of bedload transport at baseflow. Rates of transport and erosion in this group of channels scale linearly with the feeding drainage area and baseflow discharge. This finding supports a stream incision model proposed for groundwater-driven channels (Howard, 1995). We propose that deepening saprolite and coincident entrenchment of the subsurface water-routing system initiated seepage erosion and are actively expanding the headwaters in the Rio Blanco.

Meteoric 10Be (10Bemet) concentrations in soil profiles great potential as a geochronometer and a tracer of Earth surface processes, particularly in fine-grained soils lacking quartz that would preclude the use of in situ-produced 10Be (10Bein situ). One prerequisite for using this technique for accurately calculating rates and dates is constraining the delivery, or flux, of 10Bemet to a site. However, few studies to date have quantified long-term (i.e. millennial) delivery rates. In this study, we compared existing concentrations of 10Bein situ with new measurements of 10Bemet in soils sampled from the same depth profiles to calibrate a long-term 10Bemet delivery rate. We did so on the Pinedale and Bull Lake glacial moraines at Fremont Lake, Wyoming (USA) where age, grain sizes, weathering indices, and soil properties are known, as are erosion/denudation rates calculated from 10Bein situ. After ensuring sufficient beryllium retention in each profile, solving for the delivery rate of 10Bemet via Monte Carlo simulations, and normalizing to Holocene-average paleomagnetic intensity, we calculate best-fit fluxes of 0.92 (+/− 0.08) × 106 and 0.71 (+0.09/−0.08) × 106 atoms cm−2 y−1 to the Pinedale and Bull Lake moraines, respectively, and compare these values to two widely-used 10Bemet delivery rate estimation methods. Accurately estimating 10Bemet flux using these methods requires careful consideration of spatial scale as well as temporally varying parameters (e.g. paleomagnetic field intensity) to ensure the most realistic estimates of 10Bemet-derived erosion rates in future studies.

Meteoric 10Be and 7Be produced in the atmosphere from high-energy spallation reactions are deposited onto the Earth's surface through wet and dry deposition and are sorbed onto the surfaces of particles. On land, the sorbed concentrations scale with the residence time of sediments in a landscape-offset by slow (10Be) and fast (7Be) radioactive decay. Additionally, the amount of native 9Be, leached from minerals, correlates with the chemical weathering of soils. However, previous work has shown that chemical and physical properties of soils and river sediments affects sorption of beryllium. Therefore, the magnitude of sorbed beryllium concentrations may be more representative of the sorption capacity of the system rather than its erosional or weathering history. Although previous work has examined the physical and chemical properties of soil that influence beryllium sorption, these studies either lack consensus or exclude potentially important variables. In this work, we provide a thorough examination of variables previously reported to have influence on beryllium chemistry as well as new variables such as nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur concentrations in order to determine which factors best predict beryllium sorption. We selected two soil endmembers with differing compositions, separated them into different size fractions, and characterized the surface area, cation exchange capacity (CEC), mineralogy, sulfur, carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations. We determined that the inverse percent abundance of quartz and the CEC best predict beryllium sorption potential in these soils. By deriving a model that relates these two variables to the percent sorbed beryllium, we were able to predict the sorption capacity of our system and reduced the error in sorbed beryllium amounts due to differences in soil properties by about 42%. From these results, we provide insight as to why there is inconsistency in the literature with regards to the physio-chemical controls on the environmental behavior of beryllium.

Asbestos fibers are highly toxic (Group 1 carcinogen) due to their high aspect ratio, durability, and the presence of iron. In nature, plants, fungi, and microorganisms release exudates, which can alter the physical and chemical properties of soil minerals including asbestos minerals. We examined whether exudates from bacteria and fungi at environmentally relevant concentrations can alter chrysotile, the most widely used asbestos mineral, and lower its toxicity. We monitored the release of iron from chrysotile in the presence of organic acid ligands and iron-specific siderophores derived from bacteria and fungi and measured any change in fiber toxicity toward peritoneal macrophages harvested from mice. Both fungal and bacterial siderophores increased the removal of iron from asbestos fibers. In contrast, organic acid ligands at environmentally relevant concentrations neither released iron from fibers nor helped in siderophore-mediated iron removal. Removal of plant-available or exchangeable iron did not diminish iron dissolution by both types of siderophores, which indicates that siderophores can effectively remove structural iron from chrysotile fibers. Removal of iron by siderophore lowered the fiber toxicity; fungal siderophore appears to be more effective than bacterial siderophore in lowering the toxicity. These results indicate that prolonged exposure to siderophores, not organic acids, in the soil environment decreases asbestos fiber toxicity and possibly lowers the health risks. Thus, bioremediation should be explored as a viable strategy to manage asbestos-contaminated sites such as Brownfield sites, which are currently left untreated despite dangers to surrounding communities.

We examine the feasibility of phytoremediation as an alternative strategy to limit the exposure of asbestos in site with asbestos-containing materials. We collected soils from four locations from two sites-one with naturally occurring asbestos, and another, a superfund site, where asbestos-containing materials were disposed over decades-and performed ecotoxicology tests. We also performed two experiments with crop cultivar and two grasses from serpentine ecotype and cultivar to determined best choice for phytoremediation. Asbestos concentrations in different size fractions of soils varied by orders of magnitude. However, different asbestos concentrations had little effect on germination and root growth. Presence of co-contaminants such as heavy metals and lack of nutrients affected plant growth to different extents, indicating that several of these limiting factors should be considered instead of the primary contaminant of concern. Crop cultivar survived on asbestos-contaminated soil. Grasses from serpentine ecotype did not show higher biomass than the cultivar. Overall, these results showed that soil conditions play a critical role in screening different crop species for phytoremediation and that asbestos concentration has limited to no effect on plant growth. Our study provided a framework for phytoremediation of asbestos-contaminated sites to limit long-term asbestos exposure.

The East Antarctic Ice Sheet responds sluggishly to shifts in climate. To capture subtle changes in Antarctic climate, researchers have focused instead on smaller alpine and cirque glaciers that fringe the ice sheet throughout the McMurdo Dry Valleys. The exposure ages of glacial moraine boulders scatter widely and often incorporate large amounts of inheritance, prohibiting the construction of a regional deglaciation chronology. We present a new sampling technique that takes advantage of ubiquitous desert pavements and allows for the detection of inheritance in overlying glacial moraine boulders. Our approach requires a large sample set, but offers increased confidence in modeling moraine age, an acceptable trade-off considering the need for more refined Antarctic paleoclimate reconstructions. Using the beryllium-10 system in sandstone quartz, we show that single exposure ages collected from moraine boulder tops are frequently inaccurate, and consistently over- and underestimate moraine age. Difference Dating offers a new approach to dating alpine glacial moraines independent from traditional boulder exposure age dating.

Drainages reorganise in landscapes under diverse conditions and process dynamics that impact biotic distributions and evolution. We first investigated the relative control that Earth surface process parameters have on divide migration and stream capture in scenarios of base-level fall and heterogeneous uplift. A model built with the Landlab toolkit was run 51 200 times in sensitivity analyses that used globally observed values. Large-scale drainage reorganisation occurred only in the model runs within a limited combination of parameters and conditions. Uplift rate, rock erodibility, and the magnitude of perturbation (base-level fall or fault displacement) had the greatest influence on drainage reorganisation. The relative magnitudes of perturbation and topographic relief limited landscape susceptibility to reorganisation. Stream captures occurred more often when the channel head distance to divide was low. Stream topology set by initial conditions strongly affected capture occurrence when the imposed uplift was spatially heterogeneous. We also integrated simulations of geomorphic and biologic processes to investigate relationships among topographic relief, drainage reorganisation, and riverine species diversification in the two scenarios described above. We used a new Landlab component called SpeciesEvolver that models species at landscape scale following macroevolutionary process rules. More frequent stream capture and less frequent stream network disappearance due to divide migration increased speciation and decreased extinction, respectively, especially in the heterogeneous uplift scenario in which final species diversity was often greater than the base-level fall scenario. Under both scenarios, the landscape conditions that led to drainage reorganisation also controlled diversification. Across the model trials, the climatic or tectonic perturbation was more likely in low-relief landscapes to drive more extensive drainage reorganisation that in turn increased the diversity of riverine species lineages, especially for the species that evolved more rapidly. This model result supports recent research on natural systems that implicates drainage reorganisation as a mechanism of riverine species diversification in lowland basins. Future research applications of SpeciesEvolver software can incorporate complex climatic and tectonic forcings as they relate to macroevolution and surface processes, as well as region- and taxon-specific organisms based in rivers and those on continents at large.

Accurately inferring erosion rates from cosmogenic isotope concentrations in river sand assumes temporally steady concentrations; few studies test this assumption. Following Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, we quantified temporal variability in meteoric and in situ 10Be (10Bem, 10Bei) on sand-sized grains of riverine transported material in landslide-prone basins. We analyzed 20 samples collected over 18 months from the channels of two nested watersheds: the Icacos (3.14 km2, 0.09% active landslide area) and Guaba basins (0.11 km2, 1.23% active landslide area). 10Bei concentrations in Icacos basin sediment remained steady over time whereas concentrations in Guaba basin sediment were initially half those in the Icacos basin and increased linearly over 18 months, constraining recovery time to

We present cospatial, contemporary archival records of biotic and abiotic terrestrial processes operating over the past ∼25 ky within the Rio Fajardo watershed, in northeastern Puerto Rico. The proxy records were derived from a 5-m-thick stratigraphic section exposed by cut bank incision. We interpreted ecosystem dynamics from changes in the stable carbon isotopic ratio of sedimentary organic material compared to δ 13C ratios of contemporary carbon sources. Sedimentary organic material had δ 13C values ranging from −29.715 to −15.291. We derived a record of paleo-erosion rates in the catchment from the concentration of meteoric 10Be in layers of the floodplain sediments. Paleo-erosion rates ranged from 13 to 356 mm ky−1. The chronology of the sediments was constrained with the radiocarbon ages of organic deposits, the oldest age was calibrated to ∼22.4 ky BP (thousand years before present) and retrieved at 440 cm depth. We collected grain size data, clay mineralogies, and analyzed geochemical indices including the chemical weathering index, salinization, and base cation loss down profile. This stratigraphic sequence captures major shifts in the Caribbean climate, the intensification of the El Nino-Southern Oscillation, and the arrival of humans on the island. During the last glacial and early Holocene epochs both biotic ( δ 13C) and abiotic proxies (10Bemet and geochemical data) indicated dynamic equilibrium with climate. The past five thousand years (ky) of record are characterized instead by pulsed responses to disturbances in both systems. Colonial-era land use drove changes that significantly exceeded natural variability in any proxy over the period of record.

Beryllium isotopes sorbed to sediments have provided useful tools in the field of geochronology and geomorphology over the last few decades. The use of beryllium isotopes relies on the premise that beryllium sorbed to sediments is unaltered over large timescales. Changes in the environmental chemistry, either in-situ or en route from soil to fluvial system, to the ocean, can cause beryllium desorption and may preclude some beryllium isotopic applications. Four mechanisms were tested to determine the relative desorption potential of beryllium including a reduction in pH, an increase in ionic strength (NaCl) and complexation by soluble organic (malonic acid) and inorganic species (NaF). To assess the relative effect of each mechanism on beryllium desorption from both organic and mineral fractions, we prepared separate solutions of beryllium bound to minerals and organic compounds and measured beryllium concentrations in solution before and after each chemical perturbation. We conclude a reduction in pH resulted in the greatest amount of desorption among the four treatments, removing 97% and 75% of sorbed beryllium from illite and montmorillonite, respectively, and none from the organic ligands tested. The addition of malonic acid and increasing the ionic strength also resulted in desorption from montmorillonite. Although increasing the ionic strength did remove 32% and 8.4% of beryllium from montmorillonite and sulfonate, respectively, the presence of sodium significantly enhanced sorption to illite. The addition of NaF did not result in any beryllium desorption. Our results demonstrate that various chemical processes can promote the exchange of beryllium between solid and dissolved phases, the extent to which depends on the composition of the system. We also related differences in beryllium desorption behavior to complexation mechanisms driving retention among organic and mineral species. We estimate inner sphere complexation is the predominant sorption mechanism among the organic ligands tested due to the minimal amounts of desorption and the large stability constants previously reported in the literature. Additionally, we found that different complexation processes are involved in beryllium sorption to illite versus montmorillonite. Because beryllium desorbed from montmorillonite due to changes in pH, ionic strength and organic acid complexation, we hypothesize that a portion of beryllium-montmorillonite associations involve outer sphere processes, driven by weaker electrostatic attractions. However, beryllium exhibited a unique relationship with illite in that sorption not only involves inner sphere processes but also physical inclusion within collapsed interlayer spaces.

At the largest time and space scales, the pace of erosion and chemical weathering is determined by tectonic uplift rates. Deviations from equilibrium arise from the transient response of landscape denudation to climatic and tectonic perturbations. We posit that the constraint of mass balance, however, makes it unlikely that such disequilibrium persists at the global scale over millions of years, as has been proposed for late Cenozoic erosion. We synthesize weathering fluxes, global sedimentation rates, sediment yields and tectonic motions to show a remarkable constancy in the pace of Earth-surface evolution over the last 10 Ma and support the null hypothesis – that global rates of landscape change have remained constant over this time period, despite global climate change and mountain building events. This work undermines the hypothesis that increased weathering due to mountain building or climate change was the primary agent for a decrease in global temperatures.

90% of Puerto Rico’s 2400 km2 of karst is located near the Atlantic Coast. The north coast limestone aquifer consists of Tertiary carbonates with an unconfined upper aquifer and a confined lower aquifer. The transmissivity of the lower aquifer is an order of magnitude smaller than the upper aquifer. About half of the recharge is rainfall on karst uplands that travels north to near-coast springs and wells. Approximately 148,000 m3/day is withdrawn from the lowland areas, some of which contain a variety of chemical contaminants (e.g., phthalates) introduced in the populated lowlands. Widespread use of septic tanks and of caves and dolines for trash disposal is also a threat of unknown magnitude to water quality. Although the general flow paths of the upper recharges are known, and scores of streams in caves (of hundreds) have been mapped in higher elevations, the specific routes to the final discharges are not well understood. Dye traces, and isotope comparison of different sectors of the lower discharge area, have not proved particularly useful to identify them, so some efforts have focused on defining the characteristics of accessible cave system flows to see whether they can provide useful analogs. Geologic strike and dip are major controls of cave passage orientations, followed by faulting or major joint sets.

Author(s): Garcin, Yannick; Schildgena'b, Taylor F; Acosta, Veronica Torres; Melnick, Daniel; Guillemoteau, Julien; Willenbring, Jane; Strecker, Manfred R

Background and aimsElemental uptake in serpentine floras in eastern North America is largely unknown. The objective of this study was to determine major and trace element concentrations in soil and leaves of three native pseudo-metallophyte C4 grasses in situ at five sites with three very different soil types, including three serpentine sites, in eastern USA.MethodsPseudo-total and extractible concentrations of 15 elements were measured and correlated from the soils and leaves of three species at the five sites.ResultsElement concentrations in soils of pseudo-metallophytes varied up to five orders of magnitude. Soils from metalliferous sites exhibited higher concentrations of their characteristic elements than non-metalliferous. In metallicolous populations, elemental concentrations depended on the element. Concentrations of major elements (Ca, Mg, K) in leaves were lower than typical toxicity thresholds, whereas concentrations of Zn were higher.ConclusionsIn grasses, species can maintain relatively low metal concentrations in their leaves even when soil concentrations are richer. However, in highly Zn-contaminated soil, we found evidence of a threshold concentration above which Zn uptake increases drastically. Finally, absence of main characteristics of serpentine soil at one site indicated the importance of soil survey and restoration to maintain serpentinophytes communities and avoid soil encroachment.

In many gravel-bedded rivers, floods that fill the channel banks create just enough shear stress to move the median-sized gravel particles on the bed surface (D50). Because this observation is common and is supported by theory, the coincidence of bankfull flow and the incipient motion of D50 has become a commonly used assumption. However, not all natural gravel channels actually conform to this simple relationship; some channels maintain bankfull stresses far in excess of the critical stress required to initiate sediment transport. We use a database of >300 gravel-bedded rivers and >600 10Be-derived erosion rates from across North America to explore the hypothesis that sediment supply drives the magnitude of bankfull shear stress relative to the critical stress required to mobilize the median bed surface grain size ([Formula: see text]). We find that [Formula: see text] is significantly higher in West Coast river reaches (2.35, n = 96) than in river reaches elsewhere on the continent (1.03, n = 245). This pattern parallels patterns in erosion rates (and hence sediment supplies). Supporting our hypothesis, we find a significant correlation between upstream erosion rate and local [Formula: see text] at sites where this comparison is possible. Our analysis reveals a decrease in bed surface armoring with increasing [Formula: see text], suggesting channels accommodate changes in sediment supply through adjustments in bed surface grain size, as also shown through numerical modeling. Our findings demonstrate that sediment supply is encoded in the bankfull hydraulic geometry of gravel bedded channels through its control on bed surface grain size.

The African Humid Period (AHP) between ∼15 and 5.5 cal. kyr BP caused major environmental change in East Africa, including filling of the Suguta Valley in the northern Kenya Rift with an extensive (∼2150 km2), deep (∼300 m) lake. Interfingering fluvio-lacustrine deposits of the Baragoi paleo-delta provide insights into the lake-level history and how erosion rates changed during this time, as revealed by delta-volume estimates and the concentration of cosmogenic 10Be in fluvial sand. Erosion rates derived from delta-volume estimates range from 0.019 to 0.03 mm yr−1. 10Be-derived paleo-erosion rates at ∼11.8 cal. kyr BP ranged from 0.035 to 0.086 mm yr−1, and were 2.7 to 6.6 times faster than at present. In contrast, at ∼8.7 cal. kyr BP, erosion rates were only 1.8 times faster than at present. Because 10Be-derived erosion rates integrate over several millennia, we modeled the erosion-rate history that best explains the 10Be data using established non-linear equations that describe in situ cosmogenic isotope production and decay. Two models with different temporal constraints (15–6.7 and 12–6.7 kyr) suggest erosion rates that were ∼25 to ∼300 times higher than the initial erosion rate (pre-delta formation). That pulse of high erosion rates was short (∼4 kyr or less) and must have been followed by a rapid decrease in rates while climate remained humid to reach the modern 10Be-based erosion rate of ∼0.013 mm yr−1. Our simulations also flag the two highest 10Be-derived erosion rates at ∼11.8 kyr BP related to non-uniform catchment erosion. These changes in erosion rates and processes during the AHP may reflect a strong increase in precipitation, runoff, and erosivity at the arid-to-humid transition either at ∼15 or ∼12 cal. kyr BP, before the landscape stabilized again, possibly due to increased soil production and denser vegetation.

In equilibrium landscapes, 10 Be concentrations within detrital quartz grains are expected to quantitatively refl ect basin-wide denudation rates. In transient landscapes, though detrital quartz is derived from both the incising, adjusting lowland and the unadjusted, relict upland, the integrated 10 Be concentrations still provide a denudation rate averaged across the two domains. Because fi eld samples can provide only a snapshot of the current upstream-averaged erosion rate, we employ a numerical landscape evolution model to explore how 10 Be-derived denudation rates vary over time and space during transient adjustment. Model results suggest that the longitudinal pattern of mean denudation rates is generated by the river’s progressive dilution of low-volume, high-concentration detritus from relict uplands by the integration of high-volume, low-concentration detritus from adjusting lowlands. The proportion of these materials in any detrital sample depends on what fraction of the upstream area remains unadjusted. Because the boundary of the adjusting part of the landscape changes over time, the longitudinal trend in cosmogenic nuclide‐derived erosion rates changes over time. These insights are then used to guide our interpretation of geomorphic and longitudinal cosmogenic nuclide data from the South Fork Eel River (SFER) in the California Coast Range (United States). The northward-propagating crustal thickening and rock uplift associated with the passage of the Mendocino triple junction generates a mobile wave of uplift that progressively sweeps longitudinally down the SFER. The consequences of this forcing can be both replicated in the model environment and observed in the fi eld. The SFER contains transient landforms including knickpoints and river terraces along mainstem and tributary channels that defi ne a clear boundary between an incised, adjusting lowland and an unadjusted, relict upland. We report nine nested, basin-wide denudation rates in the mainstem of the SFER using terrestrial cosmogenic 10 Be in river-borne sediment. We fi nd that denudation rates increase in the downstream direction from ~0.2 mm/yr in the upper catchment to ~0.5 mm/yr at the outlet. Using comparisons to the modeled landscape, we show that this pattern of denudation rates, paired with the distribution of relict topography throughout the watershed, refl ect the immaturity of the landscape’s transient adjustment. Later in this modeled transient, the predicted erosion rates decrease downstream before they become uniform. This interpretation of our data has potentially far-reaching implications for quantifying the uplift history and response time of transient landscapes using cosmogenic nuclides.

Excessive loading of fine sediment is a prominent cause of river impairment, not only due to direct effects on biota and habitat but because sediment is often laden with excess nutrients, metals, and toxic substances. Determining the sources and transport pathways of sediment has proven challenging. The Root River watershed in southeastern Minnesota was listed under section 303d of the U.S. Clean Water Act as having forty-three impaired reaches, raising these questions: Where is the fine sediment coming from? What proportions of the sediment are from uplands versus near-channel erosion? How much of the excess sediment loading is caused by modern land use and water management versus the legacy of past land use? Managing fine sediment at the watershed scale requires that we identify potential sources and sinks throughout the watershed, measure source contributions, and understand transport pathways of fine sediment. Here we utilize sediment fingerprinting techniques involving long- and short-lived radionucl...

Terrestrial cosmogenic nuclides, produced by secondary cosmic-ray interactions in the atmosphere and in situ within minerals in the shallow lithosphere, are widely used to date surface exposure of rocks and sediments, to estimate erosion and weathering rates, and to date sediment deposition or burial. Their use has transformed geomorphology and Quaternary geology, for the first time allowing landforms to be dated and denudation rates to be measured over soil-forming time scales. The application of cosmogenic nuclides to geology began soon after the invention of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) in 1977 and increased dramatically with the measurement of in situ–produced nuclides in mineral grains near Earth’s surface in the 1980s. The past 25 yr have witnessed the development of cosmogenic nuclides from their initial detection to their prevalence today as a standard geochronological and geochemical tool. This review covers the major developments of the past 25 yr by comparing the state of the field in 1988 with that of today, and by identifying key advances in that period that moved the field forward. We emphasize the most commonly used in situ–produced nuclides measured by AMS for geological applications, but we also discuss other nuclides where their applications overlap. Our review covers AMS instrumentation, cosmogenic nuclide production rates, the methods of surface exposure dating, measurement of erosion and weathering, and burial dating, and meteoric 10 Be. —In memoriam: Devendra Lal (1929–2012), whose vision inspired the field.

Expanses of subdued topographies are common at high elevation in mountain ranges. They are often interpreted as relict landscapes and are expected to be replaced by steeper topography as erosion proceeds. Preservation of such relict fragments can merely reflect the fact that it takes time to remove any preexisting topography. However, relict fragments could also possess intrinsic characteristics that make them resilient to dissection. We document here the propagation of a wave of dissection across an uplifted relict landscape in Puerto Rico. Using 10Be-26Al burial dating on cave sediments, we show that uplift started 4 Ma and that river knickpoints have since migrated very slowly across the landscape. Modern detrital 10Be erosion rates are consistent with these long-term rates of knickpoint retreat. Analysis of knickpoint distribution, combined with visual observations along the streambeds, indicates that incision by abrasion and plucking is so slow that bedrock weathering becomes a competing process of knickpoint retreat. The studied rivers flow over a massive stock of quartz diorite surrounded by an aureole of metavolcanic rocks. Earlier studies have shown that vegetation over the relict topography efficiently limits erosion, allowing for the formation of a thick saprolite underneath. Such slow erosion reduces streambed load fluxes delivered to the knickpoints, as well as bed load grain size. Both processes limit abrasion. Compounding the effect of slow abrasion, wide joint spacing in the bedrock makes plucking infrequent. Thus, the characteristics of the relict upstream landscape have a direct effect on stream incision farther downstream, reducing the celerity at which the relict, subdued landscape is dissected. We conclude that similar top-down controls on river incision rate may help many relict landscapes to persist amidst highly dissected topographies.

Most research on vegetation in mountain ranges focuses on elevation gradients as climate gradients, but elevation gradients are also the result of geological processes that build and deconstruct mountains. Recent findings from the Luquillo Mountains, Puerto Rico, have raised questions about whether erosion rates that vary due to past tectonic events and are spatially patterned in relation to elevation may drive vegetation patterns along elevation gradients. Here we use airborne light detection and ranging (LiDAR) technology to observe forest height over the Luquillo Mountain Range. We show that models with different functional forms for the two prominent bedrock types best describe the forest height-elevation patterns. On one bedrock type there are abrupt decreases in forest height with elevation approximated by a sigmoidal function, with the inflection point near the elevation of where other studies have shown there to be a sharp change in erosion rates triggered by a tectonic uplift event that began approximately 4.2 My ago. Our findings are consistent with broad geologically mediated vegetation patterns along the elevation gradient, consistent with a role for mountain building and deconstructing processes.

We examine Be-10 concentration in two pit profiles in the Parkajoki area at similar to 67 degrees N on the northern Fennoscandian shield in northern Sweden. Due to repeated cover by cold-based, non-erosive ice sheets, the area retains many relict non-glacial features, including tors and saprolites. In the examined pit profiles, gruss-type saprolite developed from weathering of intermediate igneous rocks is overlain unconformably by Weichselian till.Our results show that Be-10 concentrations found in the till greatly exceed the levels of Be-10 that can have accumulated since deglaciation at similar to 11 ka and are comparable to those reported from Pliocene and Early Pleistocene tills in North America. Old tills with grussified boulders at depth were excavated in the Parkajoki area and correlations with neighbouring parts of Finland indicate a Middle Pleistocene or older age. Evidence from pit excavations and geochemistry shows that the underlying saprolites have been truncated by glacial erosion and that previously weathered material has been incorporated into the till sequence. Hence, Be-10 inventories in the tills are dominated by material recycled from Middle Pleistocene or older soils, near-surface sediments and saprolite, and cannot be used to date the periods of till deposition. The retention of relict Be-10 in the tills nonetheless confirms minimal glacial erosion.Concentrations of meteoric Be-10 in the saprolites are lower than any reported saprolite concentrations measured in other settings. Uncertainty in the pre-glaciation Be-10 concentrations in the saprolites makes age determinations difficult. One possibility is that that the saprolite had higher Be-10 concentrations in the past but that saprolite formation ended after glaciation and burial by till and that the Be-10 has substantially decayed. Modelling of the meteoric Be-10 depth profiles in this case suggests that the saprolites in the Parkajoki area were formed at a minimum of 2 Ma. Erosion of the saprolite allows an older age of up to similar to 5 Ma, with up to 250 cm of material removed and incorporated into later tills. A second possibility is that concentrations of meteoric Be-10 in the saprolite were originally lower, with formation of the saprolite in a period or periods of ice- and permafrost-free conditions before 0.8 Ma.

Rainfall scavenges meteoric cosmogenic 10Be from the atmosphere. 10Be falls to the Earth's surface, where it binds tightly to sediment particles in non-acidic soils over the life-span of those soils. As such, meteoric 10Be has the potential to be an excellent geochemical tracer of erosion and stability of surfaces in a diverse range of natural settings. Meteoric 10Be has great potential as a recorder of first-order erosion rates and soil residence times. Even though this tracer was first developed in the late 1980s and showed great promise as a geomorphic tool, it was sidelined in the past two decades with the rise of the “sister nuclide”, in situ 10Be, which is produced at a known rate inside quartz minerals. Since these early days, substantial progress has been made in several areas that now shed new light on the applicability of the meteoric variety of this cosmogenic nuclide. Here, we revisit the potential of this tracer and we summarize the progress: (1) the atmospheric production and fallout is now described by numeric models, and agrees with present-day measurements and paleo-archives such as from rain and ice cores; (2) short-term fluctuations in solar modulation of cosmic rays or in the delivery of 10Be are averaged out over the time scale soils accumulate; (3) in many cases, the delivery of 10Be is not dependent on the amount of precipitation; (4) we explore where 10Be is retained in soils and sediment; (5) we suggest a law to account for the strong grain-size dependence that controls adsorption and the measured nuclide concentrations; and (6) we present a set of algebraic expressions that allows calculation of both soil or sediment ages and erosion rates from the inventory of meteoric 10Be distributed through a vertical soil column. The mathematical description is greatly simplified if the accumulation of 10Be is at a steady state with its export through erosion. In this case, a surface sample allows for the calculation of an erosion rate. Explored further, this approach allows calculation of catchment-wide erosion rates from river sediment, similar to the approach using 10Be produced in situ. In contrast to the in situ 10Be approach, however, these analyses can be performed on any sample of fine-grained material, even where no quartz minerals are present. Therefore, this technique may serve as a tool to date sediment where no other chronometer is available, to track particle sources and to measure Earth-surface process rates in soil, suspended river sediment, and fine-grained sedimentary deposits.

Along the South Fork of the Eel River in northern California, paleoerosion rates derived from 10 Be concentrations in late Pleistocene strath terrace sediment are a factor of 2 greater than erosion rates derived from modern stream sediment and 3.5 times greater than paleoerosion rates from the Pleistocene-Holocene transition. Using these results as a proxy for sediment supply, we provide quantitative field-based evidence that extensive strath planation is linked to elevated sediment supply conditions. We have used optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) to date strath terrace sediment and find that the highest erosion rates and most extensive period of strath planation occurred during a period of increased precipitation in the late Pleistocene. Based on our OSL data, we estimate that bedrock channel lowering rates have outpaced basin-averaged erosion rates by a factor of three since abandonment of the extensive late Pleistocene strath surface. Thus, our data indicate that hillslope relief has been increasing for the past ~20 ka.