Regolith transport in the Dry Valleys of Antarctica

The stability of ground surface and preservation of landforms that record past events and environments is of
great importance as the geologic and climatic history is evaluated in the Dry Valleys of Antarctica. Currently little is
known about the regolith transport that tends to eradicate and confound this record and regolith transport is itself an
environmental indicator. Based on analyses of repeat photographs, soil traps, and pebble transport distances, it was
found that there is a large spatial variation in topographic diffusivities at least in the annual basis and that counter
intuitively the highest topographic diffusivities are found in the alpine valleys that are located farther inland from the
coast where the lowest topographic diffusivities were recorded. An average topographic diffusivity for the Dry Valleys
was determined to be 10M^-5–10^-4 m²
/yr. This average topographic diffusivity is surprisingly large, equaling or bordering
the smallest values from elsewhere on Earth