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Evaluating the Life Expectancy of a Desert Pavement

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Evaluating the Life Expectancy of a Desert Pavement Earth-Science Reviews 162 (2016) 129–154 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Earth-Science Reviews journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/earscirev Invited review Evaluating the life expectancy of a desert pavement Yeong Bae Seong a,⁎,RonaldI.Dornb,ByungYongYuc a Department of Geography Education, Korea University, Seoul 136-701, Republic of Korea b School of Geographical Sciences & Urban Planning, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-5302, USA c AMS Laboratory, Advanced Analysis Center, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Seoul 136-791, Republic of Korea article info abstract Article history: This paper integrates prior scholarship on desert pavements with a case study of pavements on stream terraces in Received 26 April 2016 the Sonoran Desert to analyze the processes and site conditions that facilitate the survival of ancient desert pave- Received in revised form 9 August 2016 ments. This synthesis identifies vital factors, key factors, and site-specific factors promoting pavement stability. Accepted 9 August 2016 Hyperaridity is the vital factor in pavements surviving for 106 years or more, aided by minimal bioturbation Available online 14 August 2016 and clast-size reduction. Three key factors aid in pavements surviving for 104 to 105 years: accumulation of al- lochthonous dust underneath pavement cobbles; a flat topography; and a lack of headward retreating swales Keywords: fi Cosmogenic nuclides or gullies. A uni ed explanation for pavement longevity, however, did not emerge from a literature review, be- Geomorphology cause a variety of site-specific factors can also promote pavement antiquity including: resistant bedrock beneath Landform evolution the pavement; disk-shaped cobbles to promote dust accumulation; and microclimatological and ecological rea- Quaternary sons for minimal bioturbation. Both key and site-specific explanations for pavement longevity apply well to a Soils case study of pavements on stream terraces in the Sonoran Desert, central Arizona. The buildup of cosmogenic 10Be and in situ 14C, optically stimulated luminescence and varnish microlamination ages reveal stable pavements range in age between ~30 and 332 ka with conditions for longevity including: flat surface topography; pave- ments underlain by consolidated granitic bedrock; a lack of headward-retreating gullies and swales; 87Sr/86Sr analyses indicating the infiltration of allochthonous dust floating disk-shaped pavement cobbles; and a quartzite lithology resistant to disintegration. However, 10Be ages also indicate evidence for the instability of desert pave- ments on stream terraces underlain by unconsolidated playa clays and unconsolidated fanglomerate; these weaker materials allowed the growth of headward-retreating swales, that in turn promoted exposure of newer gravels by surface erosion. © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Contents 1. Introduction.............................................................. 130 2. Literatureoverviewofwarmdesertpavements.............................................. 130 2.1. Whyancientpavementsareimportant............................................... 130 2.2. Factorspromotingtheformationofdesertpavements........................................ 131 2.3. Constrainingagesofdesertpavementsusingdifferentapproaches.................................. 132 2.4. Howlongdoesittaketoformadesertpavement?......................................... 132 2.5. Evidenceforancientpavements.................................................. 133 3. CasestudyoftheoldestknowndesertpavementintheSonoranDesert,NorthAmerica............................ 134 3.1. Introductiontothecasestudy................................................... 134 3.2. Studysite:DesertpavementsonSaltandVerdeTerraces,centralArizona,USA............................. 135 3.3. Methods............................................................ 138 3.3.1. Cosmogenic 10Be, 14Canalysisofpavementclasts...................................... 138 3.3.2. OSLdatingoftheBluePointSaltRiverterrace....................................... 142 3.3.3. Soil profileandrockvarnishmicrolaminations....................................... 142 3.3.4. StrontiumisotopestoassesstheoriginoftheAvhorizon.................................. 142 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: [email protected], [email protected] (Y.B. Seong). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2016.08.005 0012-8252/© 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 130 Y.B. Seong et al. / Earth-Science Reviews 162 (2016) 129–154 3.4. Results............................................................. 144 3.4.1. Cosmogenicnuclides................................................... 144 3.4.2. OSL........................................................... 146 3.4.3. Soil profilesandvarnishmicrolaminations......................................... 146 3.4.4. StrontiumisotopestoassesstheoriginoftheAvhorizon................................... 146 4. Factorsinvolvedindesertpavementlongevityormortality......................................... 146 4.1. Minimalsurfacetopography.................................................... 146 4.2. Hyperaridity........................................................... 147 4.3. Ongoinginputofallochthonousdust................................................ 148 4.4. Lackofheadward-retreatingswales................................................ 148 4.5. Lackoforminimalbioticdisturbance................................................ 148 4.6. Bedrockbeneaththepavement.................................................. 149 4.7. Landformtype.......................................................... 149 4.8. Clastsizeandshape........................................................ 149 5. Conclusion............................................................... 149 5.1. Vitalfactorinlong-termpavementstability............................................. 150 5.1.1. KeyfactorsinPleistocenepavementstability........................................ 150 5.2. Site specificfactorspromotingpavementstability.......................................... 150 Acknowledgements............................................................. 150 References.................................................................. 150 1. Introduction modern society often requires a stable setting (Stirling et al., 2010; Wright et al., 2014; Potter, 2016). Desert pavement consists of a gravel surface one or two stones thick The existence of an ancient stable pavement provides a platform (Mabbutt, 1965; Cooke, 1970; Mabbutt, 1979) that occurs in both cold for the preservation of a diverse array of materials such as ancient ar- (Bockheim, 2010)andwarm(Dixon, 2009) deserts. This paper focuses tifacts (Adelsberger and Smith, 2009; Latorre et al., 2013; Honegger on warm desert pavements that go by a variety of names (Cooke and and Williams, 2015) and meteorite fragments (Kring et al., 2001). Warren, 1973; Mabbutt, 1977): desert pavement in North and South Post-depositional changes to artifacts in desert pavements can be America, as well as India (Moharana and Raja, 2016); reg for smaller useful in assigning relative, correlated, and calibrated ages (Hunt, gravels in the western Sahara and Middle East; hamada for residual 1960; Hayden, 1976; Frink and Dorn, 2001; Cerveny et al., 2006; rocks or boulders forming the surface of a rocky tableland in the western Zerboni, 2008; Adelsberger et al., 2013; Baied and Somonte, 2013; Sahara and Middle East; serir in the central Sahara where stones are Ugalde et al., 2015). Geoglyphs are constructed into desert pave- larger than regs; gibber (or stony desert) in Australia; saï in the Tarim ment, such as the Nasca lines in Peru (Wagner and Kadereit, 2010), Desert; and the Mongol term gobi for pebbly-rocky plains in central alignments in North America (Cerveny et al., 2006), and the geomet- Asia. Stony mantles (Laity, 2011) and stone pavements (Dietze and ric lines in the Arabian Desert (Athanassas et al., 2015). Kleber, 2012) are sometimes used as synonyms, while some archaeolo- Desert pavements are generally considered an indicator of aridity gists use stone mulches in place of desert pavements (Aerts et al., 2010). (Pietsch and Kuhn, 2012; Fitzsimmons et al., 2013). Pavement antiquity For the sake of consistency, we employ the terms desert pavement or can provide important evidence for the timing of major climatic just pavement throughout. Fig. 1 presents examples from various transitions, to when a desert region became arid enough to preserve warm deserts. a desert pavement. For example, desert pavement did not develop in While much has been written about desert pavements in the past southern Arabia until regional desiccation initiated in the early Holo- few decades (Dixon, 2009; Laity, 2011), this review focuses on fac- cene (Pietsch and Kuhn, 2012). Desert pavements also record the tors promoting desert pavement longevity. We start by presenting onset of hyperaridity on timescales of 106 years, for the Atacama De- a literature review. However, a literature review alone does not sert (Dunai et al., 2005; Nishiizumi et al., 2005; Evenstar et al., 2009; fully communicate our thesis that pavement stability can be the re- Wang et al., 2015), the gibber plains in Australia (Fujioka et al., sult of a complex mix of general factors (e.g. hyper-aridity, allochtho- 2005), the Gobi Desert (Lv et al., 2010), and the southern Levant nous dust floating a pavement, flat topography) and site-specific (Amit et al., 2011). factors. Thus, we also contextualize prior scholarship by presenting
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