Slow Denudation Within an Active Orogen: Ladakh Range, Northern India
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Slow denudation within an active orogen: Ladakh Range, Northern India A thesis submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Cincinnati in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in the Department of Geology of the College of Arts and Sciences 2011 by Scott A. Reynhout B.S., Beloit College, 2008 Committee Members: Craig Dietsch, Ph.D. (chair) Lewis A. Owen, Ph.D. Marc W. Caffee, Ph.D. i ABSTRACT Cosmogenic 10Be measurements of both bedrock and basin denudation reveal strong topographic-climatic control on erosion within the Ladakh Range of northwestern India. Bedrock weathering rates, extremely slow below the contemporary equilibrium line altitude, increase by an order of magnitude at the high-elevation range divide. Along the southern slope of the Range south of the range divide, rates of ridge crest summit lowering vary from 0.02±0.03 m/Myr to 0.7±0.09 m/Myr, whereas rates of range divide summit lowering vary from 4.97±0.45 m/Myr to 13.13±1.17 m/Myr. Long-term denudation rates of nonglaciated basins are the lowest yet reported. Accelerated glacial and periglacial erosion near the range divide drives a “frost buzzsaw” in this region that works to selectively destroy high topography. The actively-eroding glacial landscape stands in stark contrast to hillslopes at lower elevations, which have achieved long-term, near equilibrium conditions and may represent extant Pliocene or older landscapes. ii iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS SAR thanks the Geological Society of America for funding this research through the 2009 Arthur D. Howard Award, and the University of Cincinnati Department of Geology for supporting this study as part of his M.S. degree research. T. Dorje of Discover Ladakh Adventure provided field support and Susan Ma of PRIME Lab provided technical support. iv Table of Contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................................ii Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................iv Introduction ................................................................................................................................4 Regional setting ..........................................................................................................................5 Rationale and field methods ......................................................................................................8 Laboratory methods and post processing ................................................................................10 Results .........................................................................................................................................11 Discussion....................................................................................................................................13 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................21 Figures and tables ......................................................................................................................22 References ...................................................................................................................................26 1 List of Figures and Tables Figure 1. Regional overview .......................................................................................................22 Figure 2. Denudation vs. elevation .............................................................................................23 Figure 3. Denudation vs. basin metrics .......................................................................................24 Table 1. Short denudation rate table ............................................................................................25 2 List of Appendices Appendix A. Full sample data table ............................................................................................34 3 INTRODUCTION The lower elevation limit of glaciation in mountains broadly defines a boundary above which rates and processes of erosion differ significantly from those controlled dominantly by fluvial and mass movement processes at lower altitudes. As efficient alpine erosive mechanisms (Hallet 1996), even small temperate glaciers can downcut rapidly (e.g. Loso et al., 2004; Riihimaki et al., 2005), in some cases outpacing fluvial downcutting (Brocklehurst and Whipple, 2002). The mean Quaternary equilibrium-line altitude (ELA) is often used as a benchmark for glaciation. In mountain ranges around the world, ELAs correlate well to zones of focused erosion (Ballantyne, 2002; Berger and Spotila, 2008); to summit elevations in the Andes (Montgomery et al., 2001), the eastern Himalaya (Brozovic et al., 1997) and Washington Cascades (Mitchell and Montgomery, 2006); to cirque floor elevations in the Cascades (Mitchell and Montgomery, 2006) and Alps (Anders et al., 2010); and to peak hypsometric surface area worldwide (Egholm et al., 2009), including the Andes (Montgomery et al., 2001) Sierra Nevada (US) (Brocklehurst and Whipple, 2004), Cascades (Mitchell and Montgomery, 2006), and the Lemhi Range and Bitterroots (Foster et al., 2008). Collectively, the geomorphic significance of ELAs suggests the existence of a “glacial buzzsaw” mechanism that acts to limit the vertical development of topography at or above the glaciated zone, within ~ 1 km of the mean Quaternary ELA. Here, a suite of terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide (TCN)-derived erosion rates are used to quantitatively bracket the vertical transition from a transport limited, equilibrium landscape to an actively-eroding glacial-periglacial landscape in the Ladakh Range of the Transhimalaya, northern India, within the Himalayan-Tibetan orogen. This transition occurs in the vicinity of the contemporary ELA, which suggests that glacial and periglacial processes account for the 4 majority of denudation in this, and possibility other, arid landscapes within the Himalayan- Tibetan orogen. The order-of-magnitude difference between erosion in the inactive versus active landscape also implies that glaciation is reducing net topographic relief on the southern side of the Ladakh Range, albeit very slowly. REGIONAL SETTING The NW-striking Ladakh Range rises from the Indus and Shyok valleys at ~ 3000 m asl to > 6000 m asl, with a width perpendicular to strike of ≤ 50 km (Fig. 1). Bedrock within the range is composed of the Ladakh batholith, the granodioritic roots of a pre-Himalayan island- and continental-arc complex (Honegger et al., 1982), which is genetically related to the Kohistan arc of northwest Pakistan and the Gangdese batholith of southern Tibet (Hodges, 2000). South of the Range, the Indus Suture Zone (ISZ) separates the Ladakh batholith from the Indus molasse; to the north, the Karakoram Fault (KF) in the east and the Shyok Suture Zone (SSZ) in the west juxtapose the Karakoram terrane against the Ladakh batholith (Searle, 1986). Apatite fission track (AFT) and (U-Th)/He apatite (AHe)and zircon (ZHe) ages from the Ladakh Range record a pulse of cooling at ~ 22 Ma (Kirstein et al., 2006) coincident with exhumation of the High Himalaya. By late Miocene time, cooling of the Range had slowed considerably throughout the the batholith south of the range divide (Kirstein et al., 2009). Active faults in the Ladakh Range have not been recognized. The central Ladakh Range (centered on Leh, 34°09'N, 77°34'E) exhibits pronounced morphometric asymmetry. Basin size, valley width, and mean elevation increase north of the range divide. Jamieson et al. (2004) and Kirstein et al. (2006) attribute this asymmetry to the 5 northward propagation of the ISZ, which induced block tilting along the range‟s long axis. Alternatively, Dortch et al. (in review) suggest that transpression along the KF produced higher northerly elevations and subsidence of the southern edge of the range. Alluvial fans, small peaks from buried spurs, aggradation of streams, and highly denuded mountain ridges and spurs all suggest that south of its divide, the Ladakh Range has been tectonically inactive at least since the Pleistocene. The glacial history in the Ladakh Range is one of progressively smaller glacial advances after ~ 430 ka (Owen et al., 2006). Burbank and Fort (1985) plotted the contemporary steady-state ELA at 5280 m asl south of the range divide. Hobley et al. (2010) described the upper reaches of glaciated catchments as possessing classical postglacial morphologies, with U-shaped valleys and hummocky valley bottoms hosting significant paraglacial fans. Below the glaciated area, tributary valleys are fluvial in character and lack evidence of glacial modification; Hobley et al. (2010) consider these tributaries to be preglacial relict landscapes. Regional climate is consistent with a cold desert, with patterns of precipitation and temperature affected by the extreme altitudes, the Indian summer monsoon, mid-latitude westerly storm tracks, and the rain shadow effect of the High Himalaya to the south and west. Contemporary annual precipitation amounts to < 500 mm/yr across Ladakh (Bookhagen and Burbank, 2006), with a measured 50-year average of 92.6 mm/yr in Leh (Holmes, 1993). Precipitation increases with altitude, although the magnitude of this increase has yet to be quantified (Derbyshire et al., 1991; Hewitt, 1993; Owen et al., 2006). In Leh, January mean temperature maxima and minima are