TY - JOUR
T1 - Wind as the primary driver of erosion in the Qaidam Basin, China
AU - Rohrmann, Alexander
AU - Heermance, Richard
AU - Kapp, Paul
AU - Cai, Fulong
N1 - Funding Information:
The research was funded by donors to the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund (Grant ACS PRF♯48729-ND8 ). We gratefully acknowledge the help of Andrew McCallister during sample collection. Furthermore, we thank Jay Quade for the use of the cosmogenic isotope lab at the University of Arizona, and Bodo Bookhagen for assistance with sample preparation advice. In addition, we thank the DFG-Leibniz Center for Surface Processes and Climate Studies at the Universität Potsdam, Germany, for their support.
PY - 2013/7/5
Y1 - 2013/7/5
N2 - Deserts are a major source of loess and may undergo substantial wind-erosion as evidenced by yardang fields, deflation pans, and wind-scoured bedrock landscapes. However, there are few quantitative estimates of bedrock removal by wind abrasion and deflation. Here, we report wind-erosion rates in the western Qaidam Basin in central China based on measurements of cosmogenic 10Be in exhumed Miocene sedimentary bedrock. Sedimentary bedrock erosion rates range from 0.05 to 0.4mm/yr, although the majority of measurements cluster at 0.125±0.05mm/yr. These results, combined with previous work, indicate that strong winds, hyper-aridity, exposure of friable Neogene strata, and ongoing rock deformation and uplift in the western Qaidam Basin have created an environment where wind, instead of water, is the dominant agent of erosion and sediment transport. Its geographic location (upwind) combined with volumetric estimates suggest that the Qaidam Basin is a major source (up to 50%) of dust to the Chinese Loess Plateau to the east. The cosmogenically derived wind erosion rates are within the range of erosion rates determined from glacial and fluvial dominated landscapes worldwide, exemplifying the effectiveness of wind to erode and transport significant quantities of bedrock.
AB - Deserts are a major source of loess and may undergo substantial wind-erosion as evidenced by yardang fields, deflation pans, and wind-scoured bedrock landscapes. However, there are few quantitative estimates of bedrock removal by wind abrasion and deflation. Here, we report wind-erosion rates in the western Qaidam Basin in central China based on measurements of cosmogenic 10Be in exhumed Miocene sedimentary bedrock. Sedimentary bedrock erosion rates range from 0.05 to 0.4mm/yr, although the majority of measurements cluster at 0.125±0.05mm/yr. These results, combined with previous work, indicate that strong winds, hyper-aridity, exposure of friable Neogene strata, and ongoing rock deformation and uplift in the western Qaidam Basin have created an environment where wind, instead of water, is the dominant agent of erosion and sediment transport. Its geographic location (upwind) combined with volumetric estimates suggest that the Qaidam Basin is a major source (up to 50%) of dust to the Chinese Loess Plateau to the east. The cosmogenically derived wind erosion rates are within the range of erosion rates determined from glacial and fluvial dominated landscapes worldwide, exemplifying the effectiveness of wind to erode and transport significant quantities of bedrock.
KW - Asia
KW - Chinese Loess Plateau
KW - Climate
KW - Cosmogenic nuclide-dating
KW - Earth surface processes
KW - Wind
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U2 - 10.1016/j.epsl.2013.03.011
DO - 10.1016/j.epsl.2013.03.011
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84880585434
SN - 0012-821X
VL - 374
SP - 1
EP - 10
JO - Earth and Planetary Science Letters
JF - Earth and Planetary Science Letters
ER -