Search

La revolución experimentada por el uso creciente de la geoinformación 3D en la ingeniería geológica, gracias a los avances tecnológicos, que progresivamente han facilitado una disponibilidad de técnicas de adquisición de datos y de herramientas para su análisis. Junto a los avances experimentados en la disponibilidad de recursos de computación y almacenamiento en la nube, han impulsado la expansión de numerosas aplicaciones que permiten la difusión de la geoinformación 3D en la web. A pesar de estos avances científico-técnicos, es común ver los datos 3D simplificados en imágenes estáticas 2D, perdiendo parte su potencialidad comunicativa. El objetivo de esta comunicación es presentar el diseño y las funcionalidades de unos visores web 3D de código abierto como una herramienta de sencilla utilización con la que interactuar y visualizar los resultados. Así mismo, estamos ensayando las posibilidades de la realidad mixta como una experiencia plenamente inmersiva para lograr una mejor comunicación de la geoinformación 3D., Peer Reviewed, Postprint (published version)

The opening of internally-drained (endorheic) sedimentary basins often leads to a major drainage change, re-excavation of the basin sedimentary infill, and transient landscape. The timing of such basin openings can be dated only in exceptional cases in which the youngest sedimentary infill remains preserved. For this reason, the processes and timing involved in their transient landscape evolution are poorly known. We explore the role of erodibility, basin geometry and flexural isostasy during the capture of internally-drained basins by means of numerical modelling techniques constrained by recent terrace cosmogenic dating and geomorphological analysis, addressing the issue as to why the Duero and Ebro rivers, draining two Cenozoic sedimentary basins in N Iberia with similar geographical dimensions and drainage histories, have undergone a markedly different erosion evolution leading to distinctly different present morphology. To evaluate how these intrinsic parameters affect the transient landscape evolution, we design a synthetic scenario inspired by those basins. The results show that, once a basin becomes externally drained, its drainage integration and erosion rates are strongly dependent on (1) the basin elevation above the base level; (2) the width of the topographic barrier, (3) its erodibility; and (4) the rigidity of the lithosphere. The results show that transient landscape evolution can last for tens of millions of years even in absence of tectonic activity and changes in base level or climate. Basins isolated by wide and resistant barriers such as the Duero Basin may undergo a multi-million-year time lag between drainage opening and basin-wide incision. In the case of the Duero Basin, this delay may explain the paradoxical time lag between the last lacustrine bulk sedimentation dated at 9.6 Ma and the onset of widespread basin incision variously estimated at 3.7 to 1 Ma., L’ouverture de bassins sédimentaires à drainage interne (endoréique) conduit souvent à un changement majeur du drainage, à la ré-excavation du remplissage sédimentaire du bassin et à un paysage transitoire. Le moment auquel ces ouvertures de bassin se produisent ne peut être daté que dans des cas exceptionnels où le plus jeune remplissage sédimentaire reste préservé. Pour cette raison, les processus et le calendrier impliqués dans l’évolution transitoire du paysage des bassins sont mal connus. Nous explorons le rôle de l’érodibilité, de la géométrie du bassin et de l’isostasie flexural lors de la capture de bassins endoréiques au moyen de techniques de modélisation numérique contraintes par les récentes datations cosmogéniques de terrasses fluviatiles et l’analyse géomorphologique. La question abordée c’est pourquoi les fleuves du Duero et de l’Ebro, drainant deux bassins sédimentaires cénozoïques du nord de l’Ibérie avec des dimensions géographiques et des histoires de drainage semblables, ont subi une évolution de l’érosion nettement différente conduisant à une morphologie actuelle nettement plus érodée au bassin de l’Ebre. Pour évaluer comment ces paramètres intrinsèques affectent l’évolution transitoire du paysage, nous concevons un scénario synthétique inspiré de ces bassins. Les résultats montrent que, une fois qu’un bassin à drainage interne est capturé et son drainage devient externe, l’intégration de son drainage et ses taux d’érosion dépendent fortement de (1) l’élévation du bassin au-dessus du niveau de base ; (2) la largeur de la barrière topographique ; (3) son érodabilité ; et (4) la rigidité de la lithosphère. Les résultats montrent que l’évolution transitoire du paysage peut se prolonger pendant des dizaines de millions d’années même en l’absence d’activité tectonique et de changements de niveau de base ou de climat. Les bassins isolés par des barrières larges et résistantes comme le bassin du Duero peuvent subir un décalage de plusieurs millions d’a

The study of fluvial network rearrangement provides a key to understand past and future landscape evolution. Large perturbations of hydrographic basins such as the change from endorheism to exorheism have repercussions in the steady or disequilibrium state of the basins and their drainage divides. Such transitions from internal to external drainage imply a major lowering of the geomorphological base level causing a major retreating knickpoint wave that separates the upstream low-relief area (inherited from the endorheic period) from the downstream incised area. Subsequently, the water divide migrates to reach an equilibrium in which erosion rates at both sides of the divide are similar. Previous fluvial analyses suggest that both the Duero and Ebro drainage networks, the two largest catchments in Iberia, experienced a change from endorheism to exorheism sometime between the Late Miocene and the Pliocene. Fluvial capture evidence argues for a Pliocene westward migration of the Ebro-Duero divide implying an area decrease for the Duero fluvial network (victim) in favor of the Ebro (aggressor). We used river profiles, knickpoint distribution and Chi-map calculation to understand the different degree of erosion of the Duero and the Ebro catchments and the dynamics of their drainage network. The results show an equilibrated Ebro drainage network in contrast with a disequilibrium in the erosional state of the Duero drainage, which remains reorganizing and adapting to the newly-imposed Atlantic base level. We identified at least two knickpoint wave trains in the Duero drainage resulting from the onset of exorheism: a fast-propagating wave through the cover and a low-propagating wave affecting the bedrock. Field evidence and topographic analysis suggest a westward migration of the Ebro-Duero divide, resulting in an ongoing headward erosion of the Ebro against the Duero catchment. Chi analysis provides the degree of disequilibrium of the drainage network indicating a large-sc

Fluvial terraces are valuable records to study and characterize landscape evolution and river response to base level lowering, and to decipher coupled responses between fluvial incision and regional tectonics. The opening of closed basins has a strong impact on fluvial dynamics, as it involves an abrupt base level lowering that accelerates landscape fluvial dissection. This study focuses on the time response of the Duero Basin, the largest and best preserved among the Cenozoic basins of the Iberian Peninsula, to exorheism. Fluvial incision due to basin opening has developed up to 13 un-paired strath terraces along the south margin of the Duero river, distributed at relative heights up to +136–128 m compared to the modern floodplain. Paired 10Be–26Al cosmogenic isotope depth profiles from six fluvial terraces, located ca. 30–80 km upstream from the opening zone, suggest Pleistocene ages for almost the entire fluvial terrace staircase (from T3 at +112 –107 m, to T12 at +13–11 m). The terrace density and the total lowering of the terrace surface, key parameters in limiting terrace exposure ages, were estimated based on field and geomorphological data. Apparent burial durations and basin denudation rates deduced from inherited 10Be–26Al concentrations provide valuable information on basin evolution. Apparent basin denudation rates remained relatively low (<3–6 m·Ma−1) during the Pliocene, and doubled (8–13 m·Ma−1) during the Early Pleistocene (ca. 2–1 Ma) possibly showing a lower proportion of recycled sediments. Time averaged incision rates deduced from terraces in the study area and along some tributaries show that incision rates are higher close to the opening site (122–<250 m·Ma−1) than towards the upstream part of the catchment (88–68 m·Ma−1), evidencing the retrogressive travel of the erosive wave nucleated at the opening site. © 2020 Elsevier B.V.

High-plateaus are relatively flat areas at high elevations. The stream-power river-incision law predicts that surface water incises the landscape proportionally to local river slope, and therefore the margins of high-plateaus are prone to a river erosion that should terminate the low relief of the highlands that characterizes the plateau. This means that long-lived high-plateaus need an additional mechanism to compete with river incision. In absence of tectonic deformation, river networks propagate into the plateau via a retrogressive wave of river incision. A well-constrained non-tectonic scenario is provided by the Neogene Duero and Ebro sedimentary basins in N Iberia, where ongoing incision rates presently range from .02 (Duero) to .5 m/kyr (Ebro) and have propagated upstream at similar rates of up to 0.2 km/kyr, based on cosmogenic dating studies combined with numerical modeling. These rates started with the transition from internal (endorheic) to external (exorheic) drainage of both basins sometime between 8 and 12 million years ago. Interestingly, while the pre-exorheic Ebro Basin sedimentary plateau has been mostly obliterated by erosion, the Duero Basin still preserves large areas of low relief, in spite of the very similar geological setting. The causes will be discussed using landscape evolution numerical modeling. In contrast, tectonically active regions can counteract river incision and preserve high plateaus by longer time periods. Recent studies based on sedimentary stratigraphy of endorheic basins suggest that large areas of the Tibetan high plateau remain internally drained since ca 35 Ma. In the Altiplano/Puna plateau region internal drainage dates to ~15 Ma and the majority of the topographic uplift has taken place after 10 Ma. Computer models have shown that tectonic deformation is sensitive to internal drainage, because endorheism implies a nearly perfect sediment trap that effectively reduces the output of orogenic erosion to zero. The cancellat

Dramatic drainage reorganization from initial longitudinal to transversal domains has occurred in the Eastern Cordillera of Colombia. We perform a regional analysis of drainage basin geometry and transformed river profiles based on the integral form of the slope-area scaling, to investigate the dynamic state of drainage networks and to predict the degree of drainage reorganization in this region. We propose a new model of drainage rearrangement for the Eastern Cordillera, based on the analyses of knickpoint distribution, normalized river profiles, landforms characteristic of river capture, erosion rates and palaeodrainage data. We establish that the oldest longitudinal basin captured by the Magdalena River network was the Suarez Basin at approximate to 409 ka, inferring the timing of abandonment of a river terrace using in situ produced cosmogenic beryllium-10 (Be-10) depth profiles and providing a first estimation of incision rate of 0.07 mm/yr. We integrate published geochronologic data and interpret the last capture of the Sabana de Bogota, providing a minimum age of the basin opening to the Magdalena drainage at approximate to 38 ka. Our results suggest that the Magdalena basin Increased its drainage area by integrating the closed basins from the western flank of the Eastern Cordillera. Our study also suggests that the Magdalena basin is an aggressor compared to the basins located in the eastern flank of the orogen and provides a framework for examining drainage reorganization within the Eastern Cordillera and in similar orogenic settings. The results improve our understanding of headward integration of closed basins across orogenic plateaux. (c) 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) has been proposed as a potential technology to mitigate climate change. However, there is currently a huge gap between the current global deployment of this technology and that which will be ultimately required. Whilst CO2 can be captured at any geographic location, storage of CO2 will be constrained by the geological storage potential in the area the CO2 is captured. The geological storage potential can be evaluated at a very high level according to the tectonic setting of the target area. To date, CCS deployment has been restricted to more favourable tectonic settings, such as extensional passive margin and post-rift basins and compressional foreland basins. However, to reach the adequate level of deployment, the potential for CCS of regions in different tectonic settings needs to be explored and assessed worldwide. Surprisingly, the potential of compressional basins for carbon storage has not been universally evaluated according to the global and regional carbon emission distribution. Here, we present an integrated source-to-sink analysis tool that combines comprehensive, open-access information on basin distribution, hydrocarbon resources and CO2 emissions based on geographical information systems (GIS). Compressional settings host some of the most significant hydrocarbon-bearing basins and 36% of inland CO2 emissions but, to date, large-scale CCS facilities in compressional basins are concentrated in North America and the Middle East only. Our source-to-sink tool allows identifying five high-priority regions for prospective CCS development in compressional basins: North America, north-western South America, south-eastern Europe, the western Middle East and western China. We present a study of the characteristics of these areas in terms of CO2 emissions and CO2 storage potential. Additionally, we conduct a detailed case-study analysis of the Sichuan Basin (China), one of the compressional basins with the greatest CO2 storage pote

The study of fluvial network rearrangement provides a key to understand past and future landscape evolution. Large perturbations of hydrographic basins such as the change from endorheism to exorheism, have repercussion in the steady or disequilibrium state of the basins and their drainage divides. Water divides are dynamic features that migrate in order to reach an equilibrium with a complete reorganization of river networks. Previous fluvial analyses in the northern part of Iberia demonstrated that the Duero and Ebro basins experienced a change from endorheism to exorheism in Miocene-Pliocene times. A basin opening is recorded by a major retreating knickpoint wave that separates the upstream low-relief area (inherited from the endorheic period) from the downstream incised area, as is currently observed in the Duero but not in the Ebro basin. Recent works argue for a migration of the Ebro-Duero divide towards the west implying an area decrease for the Duero basin (victim) in favor of the Ebro (aggressor) based on field evidence and chi maps. However, topographic and chi-plot analyses at the basin scale have not yet been performed. We use river profiles, knickpoint distribution and chi analysis to understand the maturity of both drainage basins. The Ebro drainage network shows profiles near equilibrium with knickpoints in the upper reaches and no signal of low-relief topography inherited from the endorheic times. The Duero river profiles still record a major knickpoint (convex-up inflexion) related to the opening of the basin, preserving a large upstream low relief area (meseta or high-plateau). This argues for an out of equilibrium basin that remains reorganizing and adapting to the base level lowering by the opening towards the Atlantic during the Miocene. Chi analysis indicates a large-scale aggressor role for the Duero and a victim role for the Ebro. We consequently interpret two different signals of basin development at two different timescales. The geomorpholog