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Pothole and Channel System Formation in the Mcmurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica: New Insights from Cosmogenic Nuclides

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Pothole and Channel System Formation in the Mcmurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica: New Insights from Cosmogenic Nuclides Earth and Planetary Science Letters 355-356 (2012) 341–350 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Earth and Planetary Science Letters journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/epsl Pothole and channel system formation in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica: New insights from cosmogenic nuclides Jennifer L. Middleton n, Robert P. Ackert Jr., Sujoy Mukhopadhyay Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, 20 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA article info abstract Article history: Large pothole and channel features (15 m deep, 30 m wide) carved into the Beacon Sandstone in Received 15 December 2011 the upland Dry Valleys of Antarctica have been used to infer catastrophic subglacial flooding beneath an Received in revised form expanded East Antarctic Ice Sheet that overran the Transantarctic Mountains during the mid-Miocene. 12 August 2012 Though the age and erosion rates of these geomorphic features have not been quantified, preservation Accepted 15 August 2012 of the potholes and channels has been attributed to negligible erosion under consistent polar desert Editor: J. Lynch-Stieglitz 21 10 Available online 30 October 2012 conditions since the retreat of the ice sheet at 14 Ma. We present cosmogenic Ne and Be data from samples collected along vertical transects of pothole and channel walls, as well as from Keywords: intervening benches, within Battleship Promontory in the Convoy Range and within Sessrumnir Valley cosmogenic nuclide in the Western Asgard Range to constrain their exposure history. Measurements of fissiogenic 136Xe are neon-21 used to estimate a nucleogenic 21Ne concentration in the Beacon Sandstone of 7.772.4 Â beryllium-10 6 À1 21 Antarctica 10 atoms g and to correct our Ne data for this component. Sample concentrations of cosmogenic 21 10 Dry Valleys Ne and Be are significantly lower than previously measured in the regional bedrock and reveal À1 channels steady state erosion rates ranging from 99 to 171 cm Ma in Battleship Promontory and from 59 to 383 cm MaÀ1 in Sessrumnir Valley. Continuous exposure at such erosion rates would remove 8–54 m of bedrock over a 14 Ma period, a length scale similar to the features themselves, and suggests that these systems could have formed primarily through subaerial erosive processes. Alternatively, if the features formed subglacially in the Miocene, then a complex erosion and exposure history must have occurred to prevent the accumulation of cosmogenic nuclides to levels higher than those observed. Either prolonged and extensive ice cover of these features prior to 2 Ma, or a threefold increase in erosion rates during the Plio–Pleistocene could produce the 21Ne and 10Be concentrations measured here. Ultimately, all of these scenarios imply that the upland Dry Valleys landscape has experienced greater changes over the last 14 Ma than previously considered. & 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction and on their erosion rates (e.g., Margerison et al., 2005; Niedermann, 2002; Schafer¨ et al., 1999; Summerfield et al., 1999). An accurate understanding of the history of the East Antarctic Preservation of in situ unweathered Miocene ash deposits and Ice Sheet (EAIS) guides our ability to model the ice sheet’s the current cold, arid conditions of the uplands between the response to future climate trends. The warmer than modern major trunk valleys of the Dry Valleys have led to the idea that the temperatures of the mid-Pliocene (3 Ma) can provide a climatic region has been a polar desert experiencing very little erosion for analogue to a world heated by anthropogenic emissions of green- the past 14 Ma (Marchant et al., 1993a). Cosmogenic nuclide house gasses (Dowsett et al., 1996; Ravelo et al., 2004). However, analyses of granite, dolerite, and sandstone samples from multi- the nature of the EAIS during the Pliocene warm period is still ple sites within the Dry Valleys support the consistent polar debated. Geologic evidence of previous glaciations extending back desert hypothesis and indicate regional erosion rates as low as millions of years in the ice free landscape of the McMurdo Dry 10–30 cm MaÀ1 (Brown et al., 1991; Nishiizumi et al., 1991; Valleys in Antarctica (Fig. 1) makes the region an important Schafer¨ et al., 1999; Summerfield et al., 1999). Following the resource in reconstructing the history of the EAIS. Cosmogenic interpretation that the upland valleys have experienced little nuclide analyses of the Dry Valleys landscape provide constraints alteration over the past 14 Ma and appear to lack younger glacial on both the ages of these glacially derived geomorphic features deposits, it has been argued that neither the EAIS, nor local alpine glaciers, have significantly advanced or retreated since the mid- Miocene despite significant global changes during the Pliocene n Corresponding author. Tel.: þ1 617 384 9335; fax: þ1 617 495 8839. warm period (Denton et al., 1993; Marchant and Denton, 1996; E-mail address: [email protected] (J.L. Middleton). Marchant et al., 1993a, 1993b; Sugden and Denton, 2004). 0012-821X/$ - see front matter & 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2012.08.017 342 J.L. Middleton et al. / Earth and Planetary Science Letters 355-356 (2012) 341–350 proposed as a factor in carving both the dolerite channels of the Convoy Range Labyrinth and the sandstone potholes of the uplands (Selby and Wilson, 1971; Shaw and Healy, 1977). Nonetheless, subglacial pro- Ross Sea duction of the potholes and channels during the Miocene is widely Battleship accepted and these features have been used as evidence that the Promontory Dry Valleys landscape of the Dry Valleys’ uplands has not changed significantly during the past 14 Ma. Thus the two linked hypotheses regarding the sandstone potholes and channels of the Dry Valleys are summarized as East Antarctic follows: (1) these features were formed at 14 Ma by subglacial Ice Sheet floods beneath a much larger EAIS and (2) these features have McMurdo been preserved due to low erosion rates in an unchanging polar Sound desert climate since their formation. Here we present cosmogenic 21Ne and 10Be data from three sandstone pothole transects within the Dry Valleys. Analyses of our data suggest that the two hypotheses listed above cannot both be true. 2. Sampling and methods Seventeen bedrock samples of potholes and channels were obtained from Sessrumnir Valley in the Asgard Range and from Battleship Promontory, located 75 km to the north in the Convoy Range (Fig. 1). Sandstone samples, belonging to the Olympus Range Beacon Supergroup, were taken from benches within the channel Labyrinth Wright Valley systems, from channel floors, and from vertical transects in two potholes in Sessrumnir Valley (Figs. 2 and 3) and in one pothole in Battleship Promontory (Fig. 3). The vertical transects span Sessrumnir 10–15 m in height and were made to gather a representative Valley Asgard Range number of samples for investigating the rate of pothole widening from horizontal wall retreat in addition to the deepening rate of Kennar the features by vertical erosion. Pits and overhangs along the Valley pothole and channel walls were avoided while collecting vertical transect samples. Topographic shielding measurements of both Arena Taylor Glacier azimuthal and inclinational angles of obstructions were taken for Valley each bench and floor sample and at the base of each transect. Quartermain Images of each sample, including field photographs of samples Mountains 15 km not observed in Fig. 3, are presented in Supplementary Fig. S1. Fig. 1. Satellite image of the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica showing the 2.1. Cosmogenic nuclide calculations location of Battleship Promontory, Sessrumnir Valley, and other regions men- tioned in the text. The measurement of both stable and radioactive cosmogenic nuclides is required to constrain the long term (43 Ma) exposure The geomorphology of the Dry Valleys’ uplands includes history of a sample. The production of cosmogenic nuclides in a dramatic channel systems 15 m deep marked with potholes sample is depth dependent and occurs through spallation, negative up to 30 m in diameter carved into the Beacon Sandstone in the Quartermain Mountains, the Asgard Range, and the Convoy Range (Denton et al., 1984; Sugden et al., 1991; Fig. 1). An additional dolerite channel system, known as the Labyrinth, is found in Wright Valley at the terminus of an EAIS outlet glacier (Fig. 1). 40Ar/39Ar dating of ash beds and ash-rich diamictons suggests that the Labyrinth was formed between 12.4 and 14.4 Ma (Lewis et al., 2006). The ages of the sandstone pothole and channel systems have not been directly dated, but the formation of both the sandstone features and the Labyrinth is typically attributed to catastrophic subglacial flooding at 14 Ma during a major expan- sion of the EAIS over the Transantarctic Mountains and into the Dry Valleys (Denton et al., 1984; Denton and Sugden, 2005; Lewis et al., 2006; Sugden and Denton, 2004). However, subglacial flooding is not the only mechanism capable of producing channel systems such as those of the Dry ~15 m Valleys. Subaerial flooding is credited with the formation of the Channeled Scabland in North America, which shares many geomorphic similarities with the Labyrinth and is much larger in 0 scale (Benito and O Connor, 2003; Bretz, 1969). Alternatively, the Fig. 2. Channel systems in Sessrumnir Valley along with a close-up of typical combination of salt weathering and strong valley winds has been channel morphology. J.L. Middleton et al. / Earth and Planetary Science Letters 355-356 (2012) 341–350 343 where N(z,0) is the initial nuclide concentration (atoms gÀ1), l is the nuclide decay constant (yrÀ1), e is the erosion rate (g cmÀ2 yrÀ1), and Psp,PmuÀ,Pmufast and Lsp, LmuÀ, Lmufast are location-specific surface production rates (atoms gÀ1 yrÀ1) and effective attenuation lengths (g cmÀ2) via spallation, negative muon capture, and fast muon interactions, respectively (Gosse and Phillips, 2001; Lal, 1991).
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