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Satellite-based maps of glacial landforms reveal that the mountain landscapes of northeast Eurasia contain over one million km2 of glaciated terrain. Previous work has speculated on the existence of large ice masses during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and the preceding cold phases, but the lack of age constraints means that little is known about the timing of past glaciations across this vast region.With an aim to gain a better understanding of the glacial history of this region, we collected samples for cosmogenic 10Be exposure dating of boulder erratics and moraines in the mountains of eastern Siberia. Here, we present the first results from two sites, both within the Chersky Range: (1) Malyk Sen, which contains a succession of three end moraines in a foreland setting; and (2) Ust-Nera, which features boulder erratics and glacial bedrock pavement exposed in a previously glaciated valley. At Malyk Sen, the relative positions and corresponding ages of the three moraines indicate progressive contraction of maximum glacier extent since termination of the Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 6, with the innermost moraine dated to the LGM. Our preliminary results from Ust-Nera suggest exposure ages from glacially-transported boulders and bedrock pavement that are significantly older than the LGM. Both sites indicate limited extents of mountain glaciation during the LGM in eastern Siberia. And while the glacial chronology of our study does not extend beyond MIS 6, mapping of the surrounding areas indicates that even more expansive glaciers existed further back in time.Our findings confirm the trend of successively smaller glacial extent maxima’s in continental Eurasia towards the LGM, with at least one ice advance during MIS 5-3 larger than the LGM advance. This trend could to be linked to extreme continental settings such as in Eurasia and westernmost America, as it contrasts with larger parts of the Northern Hemisphere glaciations where Late Pleistocene maxima were reached during LGM.

By simulating erosion and deposition, landscape evolution models offer powerful insights to Earth surface processes and dynamics. These models are typically constructed from parameters describing drainage area (m), slope (n), substrate erodibility (K), hillslope diffusion (D), and a critical drainage area (Ac) that signifies the downslope transition from hillslope diffusion to advective fluvial processes. In spite of the widespread success of such models, the parameter values have high degrees of uncertainty mainly because the advection and diffusion equations amalgamate physical processes and material properties that span widely differing spatial and temporal scales. Here, we use a global catalogue of catchment-averaged cosmogenic 10Be-derived erosion (denudation) rates with the aim to optimise a set of landscape evolution models via a Monte Carlo based parameter search. We consider three model scenarios: advection-only, diffusion-only, and an advection-diffusion hybrid. In each case, we search for a parameter set that best approximates erosion rates at the global scale, and we directly compare erosion rates from the modelled scenarios with those derived from 10Be data. Optimised ranges can be defined for many LEM parameters at the global scale. In the absence of diffusion, n ~ 1.3, and with increasing diffusivity the optimal n increases linearly to a global maximum of n ~ 2. Meanwhile we find that the diffusion-only model somewhat outperforms the advection-only model and is optimised when concavity is raised to a power of 2. With these examples, we suggest that our approach provides baseline parameter estimates for large-scale studies spanning long timescales and diverse landscape properties. Moreover, our direct comparison of model-predicted versus observed erosion rates is preferable to methods that rely upon catchment-scale averaging or amalgamation of topographic metrics. We also seek to optimise K and D parameters in landscape evolution models with respect to precipitation and substrate lithology. These optimised models allow us to effectively control for topography and target specifically the relationship between erosion rate and precipitation. All models suggest a positive correlation between K or D and precipitation > 1500 mm yr–1, plus a local maximum at ~ 300 mm yr–1, which is compatible with the long-standing hypothesis that semi-arid environments are among the most erodible.

On 25 August 1933, a 7.5-magnitude earthquake struck the eastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau in Sichuan, China. The Diexi earthquake is among the largest known geohazard events worldwide and is frequently cited by those studying the effects of large earthquakes. And yet, the attention focused on this event has failed to deliver a clear picture of landslides and their geomorphic impacts—key attributes of the Diexi earthquake and its aftermath remain obscure and debated. By integrating present-day LiDAR topographic data with existing records (including studies published in Chinese), and a series of unique archival photographs (from 1910, 1920, and 1934), we present the first inventory of coseismic landslides from the epicentral region of this catastrophic 1933 event. We find that the earthquake-triggered landslides were mainly of shallow to deep rock/debris fall/avalanche type, containing mass detached from steep slopes at the top of the mountain ridge source. We reinterpreted three major landslide dams on the Minjiang River based on their geomorphology and sedimentology, and we reconstructed the processes of impoundment and the maximum area of the dammed lake that breached 45 days after the earthquake. Since 1933, we estimate that 43.15–47.68 million m3 of post-earthquake sediment has been delivered to valley floors from the erosion of the three landslide dams, with a sediment yield of up to 131.71 t km−2 year−1. Retrospective studies of the effects of historical earthquakes are challenging, but long-term observations like these are the cornerstone of emerging knowledge of earthquake-induced landsliding and related landscape response.

Former lakes and wetlands can provide valuable insights to the late Pleistocene environments encountered by the first humans to enter the Levant from Africa. Fluvial incision along Wadi Gharandal in hyperarid southern Jordan has exposed remnants of a small riverine wetland that accumulated as a sedimentary sequence up to ~20 m thick. We conducted a chronometric and sedimentological study of this wetland, including 10 optically stimulated luminescence dates. The wetland sequence accumulated during the period ~125 to 70 ka in response to a positive water balance coupled with a (possibly coseismic) landslide that dammed the outlet. The valley fill was dissected when the dam was incised shortly after ~36 ± 3 ka. Comparison of our ages with regional palaeoclimate indicates that the Gharandal oasis developed during the relatively humid Marine Isotope Stage 5. A minimum age of 74 ± 7 ka for two Levallois flakes collected from stratified sediments suggests that the oasis was visited by humans during the critical 130–90 ka time window of human migration out of Africa. Gharandal joins a growing network of freshwater sites that enabled humans to cross areas of the Levant and Arabia along corridors of human dispersal.

In this study, we apply six machine-learning algorithms (XGBoost, Cubist, BMARS, ANFIS, Cforest and Elasticnet) to investigate the susceptibility of the Jazmurian Basin in southeastern Iran to dust emissions. This research is the first attempt to apply several machine-learning techniques (e.g., BMARS, ANFIS, Cforest and Elasticnet) to mapping of dust emissions from land surfaces. Fourteen parameters associated with meteorology, lithology, soil, and human activity were considered as potentially effective dust emission factors implemented in our modelling. Collinearity among the parameters and their weighted importance were examined statistically. To evaluate the accuracy of our predictive models and their performance, we applied the Taylor diagram (involving RMSE and correlation coefficient), the Nash Sutcliffe coefficient (NSC), and mean absolute error (MAE). The prediction accuracy of the six algorithms for identifying susceptibility to dust emissions, as assessed by the Taylor diagram, was as follows: Cforest (NSC = 98% and MAE = 3.2%) > Cubist (NSC = 90% and MAE = 10.6%) > Elasticnet (NSC = 90% and MAE = 10.7) > ANFIS (NSC > 90% and MAE = 11%) > BMARS (NSC = 89% and MAE = 11.2%) > XGBoost (NSC = 89% and 11.3%). Based on the map produced by Cforest (i.e., the best-performing algorithm in our assessment), we identify four dust susceptibility classes, and their respective total areas ranging from low (32%), moderate (8.2%), high (10%), to very high (50%). We identify the dry lakebed of Hamun-e-Jaz Murian as the most productive area for dust emissions.

The intricate interplay between subglacial topography and ice-sheet dynamics is key to the evolution of large ice sheets, but in Greenland as elsewhere the effects of long-term glacial history on landscape evolution remain poorly constrained. Here we measure abundances of cosmogenic 10Be and 26Al in bedrock and transported boulders to unveil the glaciation and erosion history of Dove Bugt, northeast Greenland. In agreement with studies of west Greenland, we find that apparent exposure ages increase with elevation from 9 ka to 13 ka in low-lying valleys to 21 ka to 204 ka on high-elevation, blockfield-covered plateaus. We employ a Markov chain Monte Carlo inversion framework to constrain the probability of various erosion histories, and we quantify the residence time of samples within the upper 2 m of the bedrock subsurface—a measure defined as the cosmogenic nuclide memory. This cosmogenic nuclide memory exceeds 600 ka on the highest plateaus but is limited to less than 500 ka in most other high-elevation samples and to less than 100 ka at low-elevations. Our results define maximum limits for the fraction of ice cover during the past 1 Ma to ∼70% on the Store Koldewey peaks and ∼90% farther inland at Pusterdal, respectively. Minimum limits to ice cover, however, cannot be reliably constrained by the data. Finally, we propose that limited erosion on the highest plateaus of Store Koldewey since 0.6–1.0 Ma indicates a minimum age for fjord-plateau formation within this area of northeast Greenland.

Successive major landslides during October and November 2018 in Baige village, eastern Tibet, dammed the Jinsha River on two occasions, and the subsequent dam breaches instigated a multi-hazard chain that flooded many towns downstream. Analysis of high-resolution aerial images and field investigations unveiled three potentially unstable rock mass clusters in the source area of the landslides, suggesting possible future failures with potential for river-damming and flooding. In order to evaluate and understand the disaster chain effect linked to the potentially unstable rock mass, we systematically studied the multi-hazard scenarios through an integrated numerical modelling approach. Our model begins with an evaluation of the probability of landslide failure, including runout and river damming, and then addresses the dam breach and resultant flood—hence simulating and visualising an entire disaster chain. The model parameters were calibrated using empirical data from the two Baige landslides. Then, we predict the future cascading hazards via seven scenarios according to all possible combinations of potential rock mass failure. For each scenario, the landslide runouts, dam-breaching, and flooding are numerically simulated with full consideration of uncertainties among the model input parameters. The maximum dam breach flood extent, depth, velocity, and peak arrival time are predicted at sequential sites downstream. As a first attempt to simulate the full spectrum of a landslide-induced multi-hazard chain, our study provides insights and substantiates the value provided by multi-hazard modelling. The integrated approach described here can be applied to similar landslide-induced chains of hazards in other regions.

The widespread existence of cosmogenic nuclides accumulated in bedrock prior to the last glaciation demonstrates the limited erosional efficacy of the most recent Fennoscandian and Laurentide ice sheets. Yet the deeper history of erosion in these landscapes repeatedly blanketed by ice remains essentially unknown. Here we present the first comprehensive ice sheet-wide analysis of cosmogenic 10 Be data (n = 953) from the Fennoscandian landscape. We find 64% of all sampled bedrock surfaces contain 10 Be inheritance, including >85% of blockfields and tors, and >50% of ice-carved terrain, in addition to 27% of ice-transported boulders. Recent ice sheets scoured landscapes well beyond glacial troughs and nuclide inventories reveal a patchy legacy of erosional effectiveness that diminishes at high elevations, such that 89% (n = 55) of bedrock samples retain inheritance above 1600 m. We exploit this widespread nuclide inheritance in a Markov chain Monte Carlo-based inversion model to estimate long-term erosion rates and surface exposure histories from 113 paired 10 Be– 26 Al bedrock samples. Nuclide inventories with or without inheritance convey equally important information about the erosional effectiveness of the last ice sheet. We define cosmogenic nuclide memory as the residence time of bedrock samples inside the nuclide-production window (≤2 m depth) where ∼ 80% of the total nuclide production occurs. The cosmogenic nuclide memory is set by mean erosion rate and varies from ∼10 ka for samples eroded >2 m during the last glaciation to > 1-Ma for the slowest erosion rates. We find that mean erosion rates are well constrained compared to the ratio of exposure to burial. The inclusion of bedrock erosion in our computations thwarts the capacity to constrain surface exposure history or identify former nunataks from paired 10 Be– 26 Al data. Ice-carved surfaces reflect diverse erosion histories that are not straightforward to interpret from surficial morphology alone. Relative to the ∼10 mm/kyr benchmark for polar ice masses, we report point-based mean erosion rates that vary by more than three orders of magnitude, with glacial troughs and areal-scour terrain eroding at ∼1 to >100 mm/kyr, blockfields at 0.8–16 mm/kyr, and tors at 0.8–7.7 mm/kyr (5 th –95th percentiles).

Uranium (U) isotopes are useful for constraining the timescales of weathering and erosion processes. The (234U/238U) activity ratio (parentheses denote activity ratio) of fine-grained detrital minerals is proposed to record the time elapsed since mineral grains were reduced to

Zhao et al. (2019) examine gigantic landslides in the Diexi area along the eastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau and propose their successive failure based on a knickpoint migration conceptual model. They postulate that a major river knickpoint (KpMJ) identified by them in the middle reaches of the Minjiang River (Sichuan, China) was initiated at the Longmenshan Fault and subsequently propagated ~ 85 km to its present position upstream of the Diexi lake. They then argue that this retreating knickpoint left in its wake an inner gorge that undercut and destabilized hillslopes, triggering a series of large landslides in the Diexi area. We question this interpretation based on our high-resolution landslide mapping, an analysis of knickpoints (i.e., profile convexities >30 m high) in the Minjiang channel network, and field observations of lacustrine sediments and epigenetic gorges associated with the Diexi landslides. We confront the model proposed by Zhao et al. (2019) with three key arguments: 1) Major profile convexities in the Diexi area, including KpMJ, are associated with landslide or debris flow deposits and there is no basis for connecting explicitly any of these to long-distance knickpoint retreat; 2) the giant Diexi paleolandslide predates the debris avalanches at KpMJ, therefore the latter cannot have been the trigger for landsliding in this area; and 3) the spatial distribution of 666 mapped knickpoints in the Minjiang River mainstem and tributaries is not consistent with simple long-distance propagation of an ‘incisional wave’ initiated at the Longmenshan Fault.

The origins and Pleistocene evolution of plateau landscapes along passive continental margins of the North Atlantic have been debated for more than a century. A key question in this debate concerns whether glacial and periglacial surface processes have substantially eroded plateau areas during late Cenozoic climatic cooling or whether the plateaus have mainly been protected from erosion by cold-based and largely nonerosive ice sheets. Here we investigate the Pleistocene evolution of a prominent plateau landscape in Reinheimen National Park, southern Norway. We estimate erosion rates across the plateau via inverse modeling of 141 new cosmogenic 10Be and 26Al measurements in regolith profiles and bedrock. We combine these results with sedimentological analyses of the regolith. In the vicinity of Reinheimen's regolith-covered summits, the combination of uniformly slow erosion (50 m/Myr), possibly due to episodic glacial erosion. Despite some indications of chemical alteration, such as grusic saprolite and small amounts of secondary minerals, the fine regolith comprises low clay/silt ratios and is dominated by primary minerals with no sign of dissolution. Together with our modeled erosion rates, this indicates that the regolith cover formed, and continues to develop, during the cold climate of the Late Pleistocene.

Determining sediment transfer times is key to understanding source‐to‐sink dynamics and the transmission of environmental signals through the fluvial system. Previous work on the Bolivian Altiplano applied the in situ cosmogenic 14C‐10Be‐chronometer to river sands and proposed sediment storage times of ~10–20 kyr in four catchments southeast of Lake Titicaca. However, the fidelity of those results hinges upon isotopic steady‐state within sediment supplied from the source area. With the aim of independently quantifying sediment storage times and testing the 14C‐10Be steady‐state assumption, we dated sediment storage units within one of the previously investigated catchments using radiocarbon dating, cosmogenic 10Be‐26Al isochron burial dating, and 10Be‐26Al depth‐profile dating. Palaeosurfaces appear to preserve remnants of a former fluvial system, which has undergone drainage reversal, reduction in catchment area, and local isostatic uplift since ~2.8 Ma. From alluvium mantling the palaeosurfaces we gained a deposition age of ~580 ka, while lower down fluvial terraces yielded ≤34 ka, and floodplains ~3–1 ka. Owing to restricted channel connectivity with the terraces and palaeosurfaces, the main source of channel sediment is via reworking of the late Holocene floodplain. Yet modelling a set of feasible scenarios reveals that floodplain storage and burial depth are incompatible with the 14C‐10Be disequilibrium measured in the channel. Instead we propose that the 14C‐10Be offset results from: (i) non‐uniform erosion whereby deep gullies supply hillslope‐derived debris; and/or (ii) holocene landscape transience associated with climate or human impact. The reliability of the 14C‐10Be chronometer vitally depends upon careful evaluation of sources of isotopic disequilibrium in a wide range of depositional and erosional landforms in the landscape.

Mountain rivers respond to strong earthquakes by rapidly aggrading to accommodate excess sediment delivered by co-seismic landslides. Detailed sediment budgets indicate that rivers need several years to decades to recover from seismic disturbances, depending on how recovery is defined. We examine three principal proxies of river recovery after earthquake-induced sediment pulses around Pokhara, Nepal's second largest city. Freshly exhumed cohorts of floodplain trees in growth position indicate rapid and pulsed sedimentation that formed a fan covering 150 km2 in a Lesser Himalayan basin with tens of metres of debris between the 11th and 15th centuries AD. Radiocarbon dates of buried trees are consistent with those of nearby valley deposits linked to major medieval earthquakes, such that we can estimate average rates of re-incision since. We combine high-resolution digital elevation data, geodetic field surveys, aerial photos, and dated tree trunks to reconstruct geomorphic marker surfaces. The volumes of sediment relative to these surfaces require average net sediment yields of up to 4200 t km–2 yr–1 for the 650 years since the last inferred earthquake-triggered sediment pulse. The lithological composition of channel bedload differs from that of local bedrock, confirming that rivers are still mostly evacuating medieval valley fills, locally incising at rates of up to 0.2 m yr–1. Pronounced knickpoints and epigenetic gorges at tributary junctions further illustrate the protracted fluvial response; only the distal portions of the earthquake-derived sediment wedges have been cut to near their base. Our results challenge the notion that mountain rivers recover speedily from earthquakes within years to decades. The valley fills around Pokhara show that even highly erosive Himalayan rivers may need more than several centuries to adjust to catastrophic perturbations. Our results motivate some rethinking of post-seismic hazard appraisals and infrastructural planning in active mountain regions.

For sediment-burial dating with a cosmogenic nuclide pair, the isochron burial method performs well provided that the sediment source has undergone (1) steady erosion and (2) continuous exposure to cosmic rays. These conditions exert important limitations on applications of the method. And yet, in mountainous fluvial and glacial landscapes, it is commonly found that the source area has experienced landsliding or glacial quarrying (i.e., non-steady erosion), and/or intermittent sediment storage or burial beneath glaciers (i.e., discontinuous exposure). As well as breaching the assumptions of the isochron method, such processes tend to yield low nuclide concentrations in the sample, which further limits its workability.Here we present a more flexible method that accommodates complex, non-steady pre-burial erosion and exposure histories: conditions that exclude the isochron burial method. P-PINI (Particle Pathway Inversion of Nuclide Inventories) is a Monte Carlo-based inversion model that employs a source-to-sink approach for estimating the depositional age of fluvial and glaciogenic sediments. This method has been successfully applied to the Deckenschotter in the northern Alpine foreland (see Knudsen et al. 2020, Earth & Planetary Science Letters 549, 116491). As with the isochron burial method, P-PINI exploits an ensemble of paired nuclide (e.g., 10Be-26Al) concentrations measured in different samples from the same depth in a sedimentary sequence. But unlike the isochron method, P-PINI applies a stochastic approach to simulate a wide range of possible pre-depositional exposure and erosion histories for each individual sample. These different pre-burial histories (unique to each sample) are then integrated with the constraint that all samples share a common burial history at the sink. Where cosmogenic nuclide data (or other chronometric data, e.g., OSL) are available for multiple sites, Bayesian inference modelling can impose a priori relative age constraints, or estimates on the maximum duration of sediment storage.In this presentation, we extend P-PINI to explore how sediment storage and reworking (i.e., a range of burial depths and durations) between source and sink affects burial age estimates. Significant intermediate storage is characteristic of large river systems, such as the Danube River. Using cosmogenic 10Be-26Al concentrations measured in fluvial gravels at Gänserndorf and Schlosshof, two terraces along the Danube River in the Vienna Basin (Braumann et al., 2019. Quat. Int. 509. 87-102), we examine how the burial ages at these two sites are a function of the pre-burial history experienced by the samples.

Catastrophic meltwater drainage from glacial Lake Agassiz has been hypothesised as a trigger for large-scale ocean circulation change initiating the Younger Dryas cold reversal. Here we quantify the flood discharge that formed the northwestern outlet of Lake Agassiz using a one-dimensional step-backwater model and a zero-dimension gradual-incision model. Applying these two independent models, we estimate a peak discharge range of 1.8-2.5 × 106 m3 s-1 and a flood volume of ∼21,000 km3. Such a discharge can only be derived from Lake Agassiz rather than one of the two smaller regional glacial lakes: Churchill or Meadow. When coupled with existing ice margin chronologies, these results demonstrate that the northwestern outlet of Lake Agassiz provides a viable link for catastrophic meltwater to drain to the Arctic Ocean over a 5-10 month period during the Younger Dryas, though it is unclear whether this was near its beginning., This research was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (D.F.), the Canada Research Chairs Program (D.F.) and a Primus fellowship from Charles University (M.M.). We thank the editor, Mathieu Morlighem, and reviewers, Andy Breckenridge and Julian Murton. Data is available through Government of Alberta (2017). Government of Alberta (2017). LiDAR Data Archives. Data provided under license and with project specific data sharing agreement by the Archaeological Survey of Alberta, Culture, Multiculturalism, and the Status of Women. Edmonton, Alberta via geodiscoveralberta@gov.ab.ca through https://geodiscover.alberta.ca/geoportal/#searchPanel

The authors would like to thank the Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Hormozgan, Iran, for supporting this joint research Project. The contribution to this work by ALC was funded by UKRI-BBSRC (UK Research and Innovation-Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council) Grant BBS/E/C/000I0330 - Soil to Nutrition Project 3., Remote sensing of specific climatic and biogeographical parameters is an effective means of evaluating the large-scale desertification status of drylands affected by negative human impacts. Here, we identify and analyze desertification trends in Iran for the period 2001–2015 via a combination of three indices for vegetation (NPP—net primary production, NDVI—normalized difference vegetation index, LAI—leaf area index) and two climate indices (LST—land surface temperature, P— precipitation). We combine these indices to identify and map areas of Iran that are susceptible to land degradation. We then apply a simple linear regression method, the Mann–Kendall non-parametric test, and the Theil–Sen estimator to identify long-term temporal and spatial trends within the data. Based on desertification map, we find that 68% of Iran shows a high to very high susceptibility to desertification, representing an area of 1.1 million km2 (excluding 0.42 million km2 classified as unvegetated). Our results highlight the importance of scale in assessments of desertification, and the value of high-resolution data, in particular. Annually, no significant change is evident within any of the five indices, but significant changes (some positive, some negative) become apparent on a seasonal basis. Some observations follow expectations; for instance, NDVI is strongly associated with cooler, wet spring and summer seasons, and milder winters. Others require more explanation; for instance, vegetation appears decoupled from climatic forcing during autumn. Spatially, too, there is much local and regional variation, which is lost when the data are considered only at the largest nationwide scale. We identify a northwest–southeast belt spanning central Iran, which has experienced significant vegetation decline (2001–2015). We tentatively link this belt of land degradation with intensified agriculture in the hinterlands of Iran’s major cities. The spatial and temporal trends identified with the three vegetation and two climate indices afford a cost-effective framework for the prediction and management of future environmental trends in developing regions at risk of desertification., Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Hormozgan, Iran, UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) BBS/E/C/000I0330

A set of four outwash terraces in the northern Alpine Foreland motivated Penck and Brückner's classical scheme of four great Alpine ice ages: Günz, Mindel, Riss, and Würm. While it is now established that the Würm corresponds to marine isotope stages (MIS) 5d–2 (∼117–14 ka) and the Riss type locality to MIS 6 (∼191–130 ka), there is no consensus regarding the age of the older glaciations. The two oldest terraces, known as Höhere Deckenschotter (HDS) and Tiefere Deckenschotter (TDS) in Switzerland and neighbouring Germany, contain interbedded tills that directly indicate the first arrival of glaciers into the northern Alpine Foreland. Here, we set out to constrain the timing of the HDS, which signal the first major glaciations in the Alps. To achieve this goal, we devised a new burial-dating model tailored to glaciogenic sediments: P-PINI (Particle Pathway Inversion of Nuclide Inventories). The method applies a source-to-sink framework to a cosmogenic 10Be-26Al inversion model accounting for variable cosmic-ray exposure and non-steady erosion. Taking published 10Be-26Al data from five HDS sites (Feusi, Tromsberg, Siglistorf, Irchel Steig, and Irchel Hütz) and one TDS site (Iberig), we obtain age distributions (±1σ) that are especially well constrained for Feusi (0.93 ± 0.13 Ma), Iberig (0.93 ± 0.17 Ma), and Tromsberg (0.88 ± 0.14 Ma), less well-constrained for Irchel Steig (0.69 ± 0.25 Ma) and Siglistorf (0.94 ± 0.27 Ma), and very poorly constrained for Irchel Hütz (1.39 ± 0.56 Ma). Consistent with the morphostratigraphy, which dictates that the TDS postdates the HDS, we implemented a Bayesian modelling framework, yielding an age of 0.69 ± 0.12 Ma for Iberig (TDS) and a combined age of 0.95 ± 0.07 Ma for the HDS sites. Based on the P-PINI burial ages as well as the combined, Bayesian burial age, we propose an age around 1.0–0.9 Ma for the onset of the large Alpine glaciations that triggered the accumulation of the HDS outwash sediments. This roughly accords with the first long glaciation of the Pleistocene (MIS 24–22), identified as a step-change to colder climate and larger glaciations towards the end of the Middle Pleistocene Transition. While our results challenge previously reported ages of ∼2 Ma or more for the HDS in Switzerland, they corroborate evidence from the southern Alpine retroforeland and provide quantitative support for the early hypothesis by G.J. Kukla, who ascribed the oldest glacial deposits in the northern Alpine Foreland to around MIS 22. Finally, we suggest that the source-to-sink approach of P-PINI offers a viable alternative to the established isochron burial-dating method in cases involving non-steady exposure and erosion.

Rapid urbanization and irrigation agriculture along the hyperarid Red Sea coastal plain in Egypt are dependent on freshwater supply from coastal aquifers. The aquifers are recharged by flash-floods from catchments (wadis) in the Eastern Desert, but large floods also cause infrastructure damage and deaths. Flood management strategies require knowledge of flood magnitude-frequency relationships, but in this regard quantitative data are lacking. Here, we reconstruct the peak discharge of a large flash-flood in 2016 using field measurements and flood discharge modelling along Wadi Umm Sidr, ~50 km west of Hurghada. In addition, we estimated the total flood volume, the flood duration, the infiltration rate and the transmission losses. Results are consistent with the few published determinations for large floods across the wider Levant. Field survey of recent floods (and palaeofloods) is a robust means to develop regionally applicable magnitude-frequency relationships. We close with some recommendations regarding flood protection of the Red Sea coastal infrastructure.

Remote sensing of specific climatic and biogeographical factors is an effective means of evaluating the desertification status of dryland regions affected by negative human impacts. Here, we identify and analyse land desertification trends in Iran via a combination of three indices of vegetation (NPP—net primary production, NDVI—normalized difference vegetation index, and LAI—leaf area index); and two climate indices (LST—land surface temperature, and P—precipitation) during the period 2001–2015. The Mann-Kendall non-parametric test, the Theil–Sen estimator, and a simple linear regression method were then applied to identify trends and to map regions of Iran that are susceptible to desertification. Our results show that an area of 680,000 km2 (~ 56 %) of Iran is classified with a very high level, indicating that a large fraction of Iran is susceptible to land desertification. We suggest that spatial and temporal trends in the three vegetation indices (NPP, NDVI, and LAI) and the two climate indices (LST and P) are a cost-effective choice for the prediction and management of future environmental trends in the world’s developing regions, and are a step towards achieving land-use sustainability by helping to locate the most degraded areas.

The mantle convection accompanying plate motion causes vertical movements of up to a few hundred metres at Earth’s surface over wavelengths of 102–103 km. This dynamic topography appears to come and go at ~ 1–10 Myr timescales in areas that are often well away from plate margins, although its spatial and temporal characteristics are subject to ongoing debate. Since such motions are small and transient, discriminating convective signals from other drivers of relief generation and/or sediment dispersal remains tricky. An outstanding challenge is to detect these elusive, transient undulations from a tell-tale geomorphic imprint preserved in either drainage patterns or the stratigraphic record.In the intra-plate setting of central Australia, a 30 km long sinuous gorge is developed where the major regional drainage, Finke River, dissects a band of low hills. Remarkably, this gorge is intertwined with an abandoned and less deeply incised gorge that forms hanging junctions and shares similar width and sinuosity. This unusual overprinting of the two gorges remains unexplained.With an aim to investigate the history of the intertwined gorges, we measured cosmogenic 10Be and 26Al in fluvial gravels stored in the palaeovalley cutoffs. The gravels are remnants of major alluviation episodes that we surmise result from ongoing vertical motions associated with dynamic topography. We use a Markov chain Monte Carlo-based inversion model to test two hypotheses to explain the nuclide inventory contained within the stored fluvial gravels. In the first case, rapid alluviation and erosion since 1 Ma preserves the nuclide memory of the source area; in the second, the nuclide memory is erased during long-term fluvial storage (> 5 Myr) and is restored during exhumation of the palaeovalley gravel-pile. The two hypotheses are therefore limiting-case scenarios that constrain overall fast versus slow landscape evolution, respectively. Our model results suggest that long-term burial decouples the source-area signal from nuclide abundances measured in the palaeovalley gravels. This casts events into a Miocene timescale.

Constraining past variations in rates of erosion remains a key challenge in geomorphology, as estimates of erosion rate on different timescales must be bridged. The Late Pleistocene to Holocene represents a key timescale for studying landscape transience, as climatic change, increasing anthropogenic activity, and/or tectonic activity changed the rate of surface processes in many landscapes. Few chronometers are suitable for studying surface processes and landscape transience on these timescales, but, although not yet widely used, in situ 14C holds much promise due to its appropriate half-life of 5.7 kyr. Furthermore, by pairing in situ 14C with a stable or longer-lived nuclide, such as 10Be, 21Ne or 26Al, it is possible to compare surface process rates on distinctly different timescales. In this paper, we explore how these paired chronometers can be used to study landscape transience in non-glacial landscapes on Late Pleistocene to Holocene timescales. Indeed, we find that paired measurements of in situ 14C and a long-lived cosmogenic nuclide (CN) in samples from eroding landscapes enable the detection of changes in erosion rate during the Late Pleistocene to Holocene, if the increase or decrease in erosion rate was larger than a factor of two, and the landscape is eroding at rates that are typical for fluvial landscapes (5–500 mm/kyr). Similarly, detecting changes in catchment-wide denudation rates using paired CN measurements in stream-sediment samples is also possible in catchments with suitable conditions, such as short sediment transport times, minimal erosion from deep-seated mass movement, etc. (von Blanckenburg, 2006).

Cataclysmic outburst floods transformed landscapes and caused abrupt climate change during the last deglaciation. Whether such events have also characterized previous deglaciations is not known. Arctic marine cores hint at megafloods prior to Oxygen Isotope Stage (OIS) 2, but the overprint of successive glaciations means that geomorphological traces of ancient floods remain scarce in Eurasia and North America. Here we present the first well-constrained terrestrial megaflood record to be linked with Arctic archives. Based on cosmogenic-nuclide exposure dating and optically stimulated luminescence dating applied to glacial-lake sediments, a 300-m deep bedrock spillway, and giant eddy-bars > 200-m high, we reconstruct a history of cataclysmic outburst floods from glacial Lake Vitim, Siberia, to the Arctic Ocean over the past 60,000-years. Three megafloods have reflected the rhythm of Eurasian glaciations, leaving traces that stretch more than 3500 km to the Lena Delta. The first flood was coincident with deglaciation from OIS-4 and the largest meltwater spike in Arctic marine-cores within the past 100,000 years (isotope-event 3.31 at 55.5 ka). The second flood marked the lead up to the local Last Glacial Maximum, and the third flood occurred during the last deglaciation. This final 3000 km3 megaflood stands as one of the largest freshwater floods ever documented, with peak discharge of 4.0–6.5 million m3s−1, mean flow depths of 120–150 m, and average flow velocities up to 21 m s−1.

Low-relief plateaus separated by deeply incised fjords are hallmarks of glaciated, passive continental margins. Spectacular examples fringe the once ice-covered North Atlantic coasts of Greenland, Norway and Canada, but low-relief plateau landscapes also underlie present-day ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland. Dissected plateaus have long been viewed as the outcome of selective linear erosion by ice sheets that focus incision in glacial troughs, leaving the intervening landscapes essentially unaffected. According to this hypothesis, the plateaus are remnants of preglacial low-relief topography. However, here we use computational experiments to show that, like fjords, plateaus are emergent properties of long-term ice-sheet erosion. Ice sheets can either increase or decrease subglacial relief depending on the wavelength of the underlying topography, and plateau topography arises dynamically from evolving feedbacks between topography, ice dynamics and erosion over million-year timescales. This new mechanistic explanation for plateau formation opens the possibility of plateaus contributing significantly to accelerated sediment flux at the onset of the late Cenozoic glaciations, before becoming stable later in the Quaternary.

Identifying the sources of aeolian dust is a crucial step in mitigating the associated hazards. We apply a Generalized Likelihood Uncertainty Estimation (GLUE) model to constrain the uncertainties associated with sediment fingerprinting of atmospheric dust in the Sistan region on the Iran-Afghanistan border, one of the world’s dustiest places. 57 dust samples were collected from the rooftop of the Zabol Department of Environmental Protection during a summer dusty period from June to October 2014, in addition to 31 surface soil samples collected from potential sources nearby, including cultivated land (n = 8), uncultivated rangeland (n = 7), and two dry lakes: Hamoun Puzak (n = 10) and Hamoun Saberi (n = 6). Dust and soil samples were analyzed for 24 tracers including 16 geochemical elements and 8 water-soluble ions. Five optimum composite fingerprints (Fe, Sr, Mn, Cr and Pb) were selected for discriminating sources by a two-stage statistical process involving a Kruskal-Wallis test and stepwise discriminant function analysis (DFA). Uncertainty ranges for source contributions of dust determined by the GLUE model showed that the dry lake Hamoun Puzak is the dominant source for all dust samples from Zabol and cultivated land is a secondary source. We found marked spatial variance in the importance of regional dry lake beds as dust sources, and temporal persistence in dust emissions from Hamoun Puzak, despite very large areas of adjacent lake beds drying during the study period. Aeolian sediment fingerprinting studies can benefit considerably from the constraints provided by modelling frameworks, such as GLUE, for quantifying the uncertainty in dust provenance data.

Reliable quantitative information about sediment sources is a key requirement for river catchment management, especially in settings with high sediment loads. This study explores the potential for using source fingerprinting techniques to establish the relative contribution of three sub-basins to the sediment deposited in a reservoir impounded by an earth dam located at the outlet of the Lavar watershed, in Hormozgan Province, southern Iran. The three sub-basins feeding the reservoir are characterized by complex topography and underlying geology. The source material and target sediment samples were analyzed for 53 potential geochemical tracers, including trace elements and rare earth elements (REEs) and their ratios. Stepwise discriminant function analysis (DFA) was applied to select optimum composite fingerprints from those fingerprint properties passing the range test and we compared two different modelling procedures to estimate the relative contribution of the three sub-basins to the sediment deposited in the reservoir. The first involves a Bayesian mixing model within a Markov Chain Monte Carlo framework (BM) and, the second, an un-mixing model within a Monte Carlo simulation framework (UM). The latter model permits the use of ratio properties, which represents a novel aspect of our study. Particular attention was directed to the uncertainty associated with the source contribution estimates provided by the two models. A goodness of fit estimator was employed to evaluate the results of the UM. Both modelling procedures demonstrated that the southern sub-basin was the main source of the majority of samples we collected from the reservoir. The BM model indicated that the central sub-basin was the dominant source of two samples (S6 and S8). Overall, the results provided by the BM model for the source of seven sediment samples (S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, S7 and S9) are compatible with those provided by the UM model and the central sub-basin was recognized as the most important source supplying sediment in the study area. Both approaches offer potential for using geochemical fingerprinting to quantify spatial sediment source contributions and the uncertainty associated with those estimates.

Cosmogenic nuclide concentrations in rocks and sediments are widely used to study the evolution of landscapes that have experienced complex exposure/burial and erosion histories. Measured nuclide concentrations are typically compared with those obtained by time-integrating hypothetical histories of erosion and exposure. The presence of erosion, in particular, complicates the time-integration of nuclide concentrations, because erosion removes nuclides while at the same time increasing their production in new material advected towards the surface. This relative movement between sample and surface calls for a choice between a Eulerian reference frame, in which the integration point is fixed relative to the surface, or a Lagrangian reference frame, in which the integration point rides the sample on its way to the surface. The equations developed in the early 1990s to compute changes in cosmogenic nuclide inventories for geological settings undergoing steady erosion are now used routinely, but they are not directly applicable for time-integrating nuclide concentrations related to variable exposure and erosional transience. In this study, we lay out the fundamental equations associated with the Eulerian and Lagrangian approaches to compute cosmogenic nuclide concentrations under the influence of variable exposure and erosion, and discuss the pros and cons of the two approaches for different scenarios. We then extend our analysis to unconsolidated sediment/soil profiles by outlining a new and flexible approach to modelling cosmogenic-nuclide depth profiles that include depth-dependent mixing processes, combined with variable erosion rates and complex exposure/burial histories. We conclude with a few guidelines for reporting the steps involved with computing cosmogenic nuclide concentrations in geological settings influenced by variable exposure and erosional transience.

To provide a new reconstruction of the deglaciation of the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet, in the form of calendar-year time-slices, which are particularly useful for ice sheet modelling, we have compiled and synthesized published geomorphological data for eskers, ice-marginal formations, lineations, marginal meltwater channels, striae, ice-dammed lakes, and geochronological data from radiocarbon, varve, optically-stimulated luminescence, and cosmogenic nuclide dating. This is summarized as a deglaciation map of the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet with isochrons marking every 1000 years between 22 and 13 cal kyr BP and every hundred years between 11.6 and final ice decay after 9.7 cal kyr BP. Deglaciation patterns vary across the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet domain, reflecting differences in climatic and geomorphic settings as well as ice sheet basal thermal conditions and terrestrial versus marine margins. For example, the ice sheet margin in the high-precipitation coastal setting of the western sector responded sensitively to climatic variations leaving a detailed record of prominent moraines and other ice-marginal deposits in many fjords and coastal valleys. Retreat rates across the southern sector differed between slow retreat of the terrestrial margin in western and southern Sweden and rapid retreat of the calving ice margin in the Baltic Basin. Our reconstruction is consistent with much of the published research. However, the synthesis of a large amount of existing and new data support refined reconstructions in some areas. For example, the LGM extent of the ice sheet in northwestern Russia was located far east and it occurred at a later time than the rest of the ice sheet, at around 17–15 cal kyr BP. We also propose a slightly different chronology of moraine formation over southern Sweden based on improved correlations of moraine segments using new LiDAR data and tying the timing of moraine formation to Greenland ice core cold stages. Retreat rates vary by as much as an order of magnitude in different sectors of the ice sheet, with the lowest rates on the high-elevation and maritime Norwegian margin. Retreat rates compared to the climatic information provided by the Greenland ice core record show a general correspondence between retreat rate and climatic forcing, although a close match between retreat rate and climate is unlikely because of other controls, such as topography and marine versus terrestrial margins. Overall, the time slice reconstructions of Fennoscandian Ice Sheet deglaciation from 22 to 9.7 cal kyr BP provide an important dataset for understanding the contexts that underpin spatial and temporal patterns in retreat of the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet, and are an important resource for testing and refining ice sheet models. Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Successively smaller glacial extents have been proposed for continental Eurasia during the stadials of the last glacial period leading up to the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). At the same time the large mountainous region east of Lake Baikal, Transbaikalia, has remained unexplored in terms of glacial chronology despite clear geomorphological evidence of substantial past glaciations. We have applied cosmogenic Be-10 exposure dating and optically stimulated luminescence to establish the first quantitative glacial chronology for this region. Based on eighteen exposure ages from five moraine complexes, we propose that large mountain ice fields existed in the Kodar and Udokan mountains during Oxygen Isotope Stage 2, commensurate with the global LGM. These ice fields fed valley glaciers (>100 km in length) reaching down to the Chara Depression between the Kodar and Udokan mountains and to the valley of the Vitim River northwest of the Kodar Mountains. Two of the investigated moraines date to the Late Glacial, but indications of incomplete exposure among some of the sampled boulders obscure the specific details of the post-LGM glacial history. In addition to the LGM ice fields in the highest mountains of Transbaikalia, we report geomorphological evidence of a much more extensive, ice-cap type glaciation at a time that is yet to be firmly resolved. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

With accelerating climate cooling in the late Cenozoic, glacial and periglacial erosion became more widespread on the surface of the Earth. The resultant shift in erosion patterns significantly changed the large-scale morphology of many mountain ranges worldwide. Whereas the glacial fingerprint is easily distinguished by its characteristic fjords and U-shaped valleys, the periglacial fingerprint is more subtle but potentially prevails in some mid- to high-latitude landscapes. Previous models have advocated a frost-driven control on debris production at steep headwalls and glacial valley sides. Here we investigate the important role that periglacial processes also play in less steep parts of mountain landscapes. Understanding the influences of frost-driven processes in low-relief areas requires a focus on the consequences of an accreting soil mantle, which characterises such surfaces. We present a new model that quantifies two key physical processes: frost cracking and frost creep, as a function of both temperature and sediment thickness. Our results yield new insights into how climate and sediment transport properties combine to scale the intensity of periglacial processes. The thickness of the soil mantle strongly modulates the relation between climate and the intensity of mechanical weathering and sediment flux. Our results also point to an offset between the conditions that promote frost cracking and those that promote frost creep, indicating that a stable climate can provide optimal conditions for only one of those processes at a time. Finally, quantifying these relations also opens up the possibility of including periglacial processes in large-scale, long-term landscape evolution models, as demonstrated in a companion paper., Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe, 530

Cosmogenic nuclides are typically used to either constrain an exposure age, a burial age, or an erosion rate. Constraining the landscape history and past erosion rates in previously glaciated terrains is, however, notoriously difficult because it involves a large number of unknowns. The potential use of cosmogenic nuclides in landscapes with a complex history of exposure and erosion is therefore often quite limited. Here, we present a novel multi-nuclide approach to study the landscape evolution and past erosion rates in terrains with a complex exposure history, particularly focusing on regions that were repeatedly covered by glaciers or ice sheets during the Quaternary. The approach, based on the Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) technique, focuses on mapping the range of landscape histories that are consistent with a given set of measured cosmogenic nuclide concentrations. A fundamental assumption of the model approach is that the exposure history at the site/location can be divided into two distinct regimes: i) interglacial periods characterized by zero shielding due to overlying ice and a uniform interglacial erosion rate, and ii) glacial periods characterized by 100% shielding and a uniform glacial erosion rate. We incorporate the exposure history in the model framework by applying a threshold value to the global marine benthic δ18O record and include the threshold value as a free model parameter, hereby taking into account global changes in climate. However, any available information on the glacial-interglacial history at the sampling location, in particular the timing of the last deglaciation event, is readily incorporated in the model to constrain the inverse problem. Based on the MCMC technique, the model delineates the most likely exposure history, including the glacial and interglacial erosion rates, which, in turn, makes it possible to reconstruct an exhumation history at the site. We apply the model to two landscape scenarios based on synthetic data and two landscape scenarios based on paired 10Be/26Al data from West Greenland, which makes it possible to quantify the denudation rate at these locations. The model framework, which currently incorporates any combination of the following nuclides 10Be, 26Al, 14C, and 21Ne, is highly flexible and can be adapted to many different landscape settings. The model framework may also be used in combination with physics-based landscape evolution models to predict nuclide concentrations at different locations in the landscape. This may help validate the landscape models via comparison to measured nuclide concentrations or to devise new effective sampling strategies.

There is growing recognition of strong periglacial control on bedrock erosion in mountain landscapes, including the shaping of low-relief surfaces at high elevations (summit flats). But, as yet, the hypothesis that frost action was crucial to the assumed Late Cenozoic rise in erosion rates remains compelling and untested. Here we present a landscape evolution model incorporating two key periglacial processes - regolith production via frost cracking and sediment transport via frost creep - which together are harnessed to variations in temperature and the evolving thickness of sediment cover. Our computational experiments time-integrate the contribution of frost action to shaping mountain topography over million-year timescales, with the primary and highly reproducible outcome being the development of flattish or gently convex summit flats. A simple scaling of temperature to marine delta O-18 records spanning the past 14 Myr indicates that the highest summit flats in mid-to high-latitude mountains may have formed via frost action prior to the Quaternary. We suggest that deep cooling in the Quaternary accelerated mechanical weathering globally by significantly expanding the area subject to frost. Further, the inclusion of subglacial erosion alongside periglacial processes in our computational experiments points to alpine glaciers increasing the long-term efficiency of frost-driven erosion by steepening hillslopes., Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe, 552

The blocking of river courses by mass movements is very common in mountainous areas with deep and narrow valleys. Landslide dams may pose serious threats to people and their livelihoods downstream in the case of abrupt dam failure. Since the publication of benchmark reviews of Costa and Schuster (1988) and Korup (2002) , there is a growing number of studies focusing on the formation, stability, and short-term impacts of landslide dams. This review combines the insights of all these studies, builds on current concepts of landslide dams, and suggests ways to unify terminologies and classifications. We furthermore present a new worldwide database compiled from literature data. It contains 410 landslide dams >1 million m3 in volume that were formed since 1900 since these have the most complete data entries. These data show that dam longevity is, among other factors, correlated with the type of landslide forming the dam. Those formed by rock/debris avalanches and rockslides have longest lifespans. However, the influence of landslide type or material on dam longevity decreases with time after dam formation. To ensure consistency in the next database generation, we suggest guidelines for data collection to provide a solid basis for evaluating dam stability and governing factors. A preliminary classification matrix for landslide dam stability that combines topographic setting and the internal structure of the dam body is another outcome of our review. Furthermore, an evaluation of the various geomorphic stability indices proposed in the literature regarding their suitability and limitations in assessing dam formation and stability shows that they predict the probability of dam formation reasonably well, but that their application to longevity estimates requires further assessment. The geomorphic impacts of landslide dams in the short-, medium- and long-term are summarized and illustrated with key examples. Finally, for a better understanding of the factors controlling dam stability, we recommend to (1) include dam composition and sedimentary structures in future case studies, (2) maintain and update the worldwide database for sound statistical analyses, (3) refine landslide dam stability indices and test them for different landslide types, and (4) study hazard cascades related to multiple dams in one watershed. For long-term landscape evolution studies, we suggest to (5) quantify terrestrial sediment flux related to landslide dams, (6) detect ancient landslide dams in river profiles, and (7) further exploit the sediment archives in former impoundment areas.

Hillslopes stand at the top of the geomorphic conveyor belt that produces and transports mass throughout landscapes. Quantification of the tempo of hillslope evolution is key to identifying primary sediment production and understanding how surface processes shape topography. We measured cosmogenic 10Be and 26Al on three desert hillslopes in postorogenic central Australia and quantified their soil dynamics and evolution. We found that hillslope morphology is governed by lithological factors, and differing nuclide abundances reflect the main sediment transport processes. Slope wash is widespread, and shrink-swell soil processes drive downslope creep and upward migration of gravels detached from underlying bedrock. We applied Monte Carlo-based inversion modeling to reconstruct soil production and the exhumation histories of stony mantle gravels. Underlying silty soils derive from eolian dust inputs dating to at least 0.2 Ma and possibly more than 1 Ma, in line with intensified aridity. Exposed bedrock erodes at ~0.2-7 m/m.y., and under soil, it erodes at maximum rates of < 0.1 m/m.y. up to 10 m/m.y. Accordingly, particles spend 2-6 m.y. or more in the upper 0.6 m of the bedrock column and an additional ~0.2-2 m.y. or more within hillslope soils. Such long periods near the surface result in surface particles acquiring inherently low 26Al/10Be ratios. Bedrock erodibility underpins regional variations in erosion rate, and the slow tempo of hillslope evolution is largely independent of base level. This suggests a distinctive top-down evolution among postorogenic hillslopes set by authigenic rates of sediment production, rather than by fluvial incision as in tectonically active settings.

Glaciers create some of Earth’s steepest topography; yet, many areas that were repeatedly overridden by ice sheets in the last few million years include extensive plateaus. The distinct geomorphic contrast between plateaus and the glacial troughs that dissect them has sustained two long-held hypotheses: first, that ice sheets perform insignificant erosion beyond glacial troughs, and, second, that the plateaus represent ancient pre-glacial landforms bearing information of tectonic and geomorphic history prior to Pliocene–Pleistocene global cooling (~3.5 Myr ago). Here we show that the Fennoscandian ice sheets drove widespread erosion across plateaus far beyond glacial troughs. We apply inverse modelling to 118 new cosmogenic 10Be and 26Al measurements to quantify ice sheet erosion on the plateaus fringing the Sognefjorden glacial trough in western Norway. Our findings demonstrate substantial modification of the pre-glacial landscape during the Quaternary, and that glacial erosion of plateaus is important when estimating the global sediment flux to the oceans., The contribution of surface processes to the long-term evolution of plateau surfaces on high-latitude passive margins is poorly understood. Here, the authors show that recent glacial erosion on plateaus in western Scandinavia was widespread and may have contributed substantially to the sediment flux to the oceans.

Lake Baikal is Earth's deepest lake and an iconic site of scientific study. This vast basin holds sedimentary archives of environmental change dating back to the Miocene and its array of palaeoshorelines and surrounding relief record the past ~ 1–3 Ma of lake-levels and outflows. Here we present an extensive review of previous work alongside a new set of observations concerning the Quaternary development of Lake Baikal, with special focus on lake-level fluctuations and the formation and evolution of the lake's three known outlets. The sequence of shoreline terraces indicates that lake-levels were both higher and lower in the past. Lake Baikal stood ~ 200 m higher during the Last Interglacial, i.e. Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5e and dropped to 40 m below (present-day) during the Last Glacial Maximum (MIS 2). The relative lake-level variations reflect climate factors and gradual or sudden (coseismic) tectonic impacts on the elevation of the lake's outlet thresholds. Three successive outlets are known: i) the palaeo-Goloustnaya-Manzurka, associated with the Manzurka Alluvium; ii) the palaeo-Irkut, and iii) the currently-active Angara River outlet. We propose that the Manzurka Alluvium is the product of catastrophic events in Lake Baikal. The sudden (possibly coseismic) collapse of the ~ 15 × 3 km Goloustnaya fault-block into Lake Baikal triggered a mega-tsunami that thrust overwash deposits across neighbouring drainage divides above Lake Baikal and the valleys of the Goloustnaya-Manzurka River system. The age of the Manzurka Alluvium remains poorly constrained, but the mega-tsunami is potentially traceable to an unconformity in drill-core sediments at ~ 0.8–1.0 Ma, although older (late Pliocene) and younger (~ 125 ka) ages have also been proposed. The Irkut outlet existed between MIS 6 and MIS 5 when lake-level was ~ 200 m higher than present (~ 640–650 masl) and a large bay extended into the Tunka rift at Baikal's south-west tip. Lake Baikal retreated from the Tunka rift when lake-level fell by up to 100 m in early MIS 5e. We propose that the lake-level fall is connected to a partial collapse of Primorsky Ridge at Listvenichny Bay, which caused Baikal to overspill into the Angara River thereby forming a new outlet. The release of a > 4000 km3 megaflood down the Angara River valley caused large-scale modification and reworking of valley-fills (MIS 5e). At the end of MIS 2, further collapse of Primorsky Ridge lowered the outlet threshold an additional 50–60 m and prompted a second megaflood down the Angara River valley, which left a widespread unconformity where horizontal-bedded sands (dated at ~ 11.8–13.4 ka) overlie cryoturbated deposits of the earlier megaflood. The central role of catastrophic processes at Lake Baikal suggests that, rather than being rare events, coseismic landsliding and mega-tsunami may be more frequent than hitherto recognised.

Sediment-routing systems continuously transfer information and mass from eroding source areas to depositional sinks. Understanding how these systems alter environmental signals is critical when it comes to inferring source-area properties from the sedimentary record. We measure cosmogenic 10Be and 26Al along three large sediment-routing systems (~ 100,000 km2) in central Australia with the aim of tracking downstream variations in 26Al/10Be inventories and to identify the factors responsible. By comparing 56 new cosmogenic 10Be and 26Al measurements in stream sediments with matching data (n = 55) from source areas, we show that 26Al/10Be inventories in hillslope bedrock and soils set the benchmark for relative downstream modifications. Lithology is the primary determinant of erosion-rate variations in source areas and despite sediment mixing over hundreds of kilometres downstream a distinct lithological signal is retained. Postorogenic ranges yield catchment erosion rates of ~ 6–11 m/m.y. and silcrete-dominant areas erode as slow as ~ 0.2 m/m.y. 26Al/10Be inventories in stream-sediments reveal overall downstream-increasing minimum cumulative burial terms up to ~ 1.1 m.y. but more generally ~ 400–800 k.y. The magnitude of the burial signal correlates with increasing sediment cover downstream and reflects assimilation from storages with long exposure histories, such as alluvial fans, desert pavements, alluvial plains, and aeolian dunes. We propose that the tendency for large alluvial rivers to mask their 26Al/10Be source-area signal differs according to geomorphic setting. Signal preservation is favoured by i) high sediment supply rates, ii) high mean runoff, and iii) a thick sedimentary basin pile. Conversely, signal masking prevails in landscapes of i) low sediment supply, ii) discontinuous sediment flux, and iii) juxtaposition of sediment storages with notably different exposure histories.