Ongoing bedrock incision of the Fortymile River driven by Pliocene–Pleistocene Yukon River capture, eastern Alaska, USA, and Yukon, Canada
Quantification of river incision via process rate laws represents a key goal of geomorphic research, but such models often fail to reproduce traits of natural rivers responding to base-level lowering. The Fortymile River flows from eastern Alaska in the United States to the Yukon River in Canada across a tectonically quiescent region with near-uniform precipitation and bedrock erosivity. We exploit these stable boundary conditions to quantify bedrock incision evident in a gravel-capped strath terrace that flanks the lower ∼175 km of the river and grades to the minimally incised headwaters. The terrace gravel yields a cosmogenic isochron burial age of 2.44 ± 0.24 Ma, consistent with abandonment triggered by late Pliocene–early Pleistocene Yukon River headwater capture. The deeply incised reach forms a linear knickzone where basin relief nearly doubles and inferred bedrock incision rates (∼19–110 m/m.y.) averaged since ca. 2.44 Ma increase downstream toward the Fortymile–Yukon River confluence. Basin-scale 10Be-based erosion rates of tributaries to the Fortymile River trunk nearly double from the headwaters (∼9 mm/k.y.) to the knickzone (average ∼16 mm/k.y.), revealing the pace of ongoing landscape response to knickzone incision over 104 yr. Our observations calibrate a stream-power model (erosion coefficient K ∼ 1.1 × 10–6 m0.2) that closely reproduces the knickzone profile and thus implies long-term (104–106 yr) efficacy of a simple stream-power bedrock incision law.
Citation Information
Publication Year | 2018 |
---|---|
Title | Ongoing bedrock incision of the Fortymile River driven by Pliocene–Pleistocene Yukon River capture, eastern Alaska, USA, and Yukon, Canada |
DOI | 10.1130/G40203.1 |
Authors | Adrian Bender, Richard O. Lease, Lee B. Corbett, Paul R. Bierman, Marc Caffee |
Publication Type | Article |
Publication Subtype | Journal Article |
Series Title | Geology |
Index ID | 70237325 |
Record Source | USGS Publications Warehouse |
USGS Organization | Alaska Science Center Geology Minerals |
Related Content
Charley River Cosmogenic Isotope Data Collected 2019-2021
Fortymile River Cosmogenic Isotope and Luminescence Data Collected 2016-2019
Related Content
- Data
Charley River Cosmogenic Isotope Data Collected 2019-2021
This data release comprises three tables containing cosmogenic beryllium-10 and aluminum-26 concentrations and related data from samples collected at four sites along the Charley River in central Alaska in 2019, prepared in 2020 at the University of Vermont (UVM), and measured at the Purdue Rare Isotope Measurement lab (PRIME) in 2021. The file "geology_siteLocations_Charley_bender_2022.csv" contaFortymile River Cosmogenic Isotope and Luminescence Data Collected 2016-2019
This dataset comprises four tables containing cosmogenic beryllium-10 and aluminum-26 concentrations and related data, as well as infrared stimulated luminescence data, from samples collected at 21 sites along the Fortymile River in eastern Alaska and Yukon, Canada between 2016 to 2018, and processed between 2016 and 2019. The file "geology_siteLocations_Fortymile_bender_2020.csv" contains site lo - Connect