Quantifying sediment discharge from the Bolivian Andes into the Beni foreland basin from cosmogenic ¹⁰Be-derived denudation rates

Quantificação da descarga sedimentar na bacia de Beni (Andes bolivianos) por meio da taxa de denudação obtida por isótopos cosmogênicos de ¹⁰ Be

Abstract:

Enormous volumes of sediment are produced in the Central Andes and are then delivered into the foreland basins of Amazon basin tributaries. While cosmogenic nuclides in sediment are a suitable tool to measure the denudation rates of sediment-producing areas, the requirement of steady state between nuclide production and nuclide removal by denudation appears to make this method less obvious in depositional foreland basins, where sediment storage may alter 10Be-based erosion signals from the sediment-providing areas. A published cosmogenic nuclide-based modeling approach however predicts that source-area cosmogenic nuclide concentrations are not modified by temporary sediment storage. We tested this approach in the large Beni foreland basin by measuring cosmogenic 10Be nuclide concentrations in detrital sediment along a 600 km long floodplain reach. The outcome of our study is that the ¹⁰Be-based denudation rate signal of the Bolivian Andes is preserved in the Beni floodplain even though this basin stores the sediment for thousands of years. For the floodplain part of the Beni basin, the cosmogenic nuclide-derived denudation rate is 0.45 ± 0.07 mm/yr, and the respective Andean source area erodes at a very similar rate of 0.37 ± 0.06 mm/yr. We thus suggest that any sample collected along a river traversing a floodplain will yield the denudation rate of the source area. This finding opens the unique possibility of constraining paleo-sediment budgets for these large basins using cosmogenic nuclides as the denudation rate signal of the sediment-producing area is preserved in sedimentary archives.

Keywords:
Denudation; Erosion; Sediment delivery; Cosmogenic nuclides; Cosmogenic ¹⁰Be; Bolivian Andes; Beni River; Madeira River

Resumo:

O grande volume de sedimento produzido pelas bacias foreland dos Andes Centrais é carregado pelos tributários da bacia do rio Amazonas. Embora os cosmonuclídeos em sedimento constituam uma ferramenta atraente para estimativa da taxa de denudação de áreas-fonte, a exigência da relação inicial entre a produção e a remoção de nuclídeos torna o método menos óbvio no caso de bacias foreland, nas quais o estoque de sedimento pode alterar os sinais de erosão pelo 10Be das áreas-fonte. Um modelo de nuclídeos cosmogênicos já publicado afirma contudo que a concentração dos nuclídeos não é modificada pelo estoque temporário de sedimento. No presente trabalho esse modelo foi testado na grande bacia foreland de Beni pela medição das concentrações de nuclídeos de 10Be em sedimento detrítico de um trecho de 600 km ao longo da planície de inundação do rio Beni. Os resultados revelaram que o sinal da taxa de denudação baseada em de nuclídeos de 10Be é preservado nos depósitos da planície de inundação do rio Beni, mesmo em setores onde os sedimentos estejam estocados por milhares de anos. Os valores da taxa de denudação por ¹⁰Be encontrados na planície de inundação e na área fonte foram bastante semelhantes: 0,45 ± 0,07 e 0,37 ± 0,06 mm/ano respectivamente. Dessa forma sugere-se que qualquer amostra coletada ao longo de tributários que atravessem a planície de inundação fornecerá a taxa de erosão da área fonte. Esse resultado antevê a possibilidade de uma redução expressiva na amostragem em estudos que objetivem o cálculo da taxa de denudação baseada em cosmonuclídeos.

Palavras-chave:
Denudação; Erosão; Fornecimento de sedimento; Cosmonuclídeos; ¹⁰Be cosmogênico; Andes bolivianos; Rio Beni, Rio Madeira

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Acknowledgements

The authors want to thank Liz Safran for providing her data and for numerous discussions. This work was supported by Deutsche Forschungs gemeinschaft grant Bl 562/2-2.

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Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  Oct-Dec 2011

History

• Received
  30 June 2010
• Accepted
  21 Dec 2011