Douglas W. Burbank

• University of California, Santa Barbara

In the central Himalaya, an abrupt physiographic transition at the foot of the Greater Himalaya (PT2) marks the southern edge of a zone of rapid rock uplift along a ramp in the Main Himalayan Thrust (MHT). Despite being traceable along ~1500 km of the central Himalaya, PT2 is less distinct in western Nepal, reflecting along-strike changes in MHT ge...

It has long been hypothesized that climate can modify both the pattern and magnitude of erosion in mountainous landscapes, thereby controlling morphology, rates of deformation, and potentially modulating global carbon and nutrient cycles through weathering feedbacks. Although conceptually appealing, geologic evidence for a direct climatic control o...

Cosmogenic burial dating enables dating of coarse-grained, Pliocene-Pleistocene sedimentary units that are typically difficult to date with traditional methods, such as magnetostratigraphy. In the actively deforming western Tarim Basin in NW China, Pliocene-Pleistocene conglomerates were dated at eight sites, integrating Al-26/Be-10 burial dating w...

Lateral movements of alluvial river channels control the extent and reworking rates of alluvial fans, floodplains, deltas, and alluvial sections of bedrock rivers. These lateral movements can occur by gradual channel migration or by sudden changes in channel position (avulsions). Whereas models exist for rates of river avulsion, we lack a detailed...

Cosmogenic burial dating enables dating of coarse-grained, Pliocene-Pleistocene sedimentary units that are typically difficult to date with traditional methods, such as magnetostratigraphy. In the actively deforming western Tarim Basin in NW China, Pliocene-Pleistocene conglomerates were dated at eight sites, integrating ²⁶Al/¹⁰Be burial dating wit...

Along the NE Pamir margin, flights of late Quaternary fluvial terraces span actively deforming fault-related folds. We present detailed results on two terraces dated using optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and cosmogenic radionuclide ¹⁰Be (CRN) techniques. Quartz OSL dating of two different grain sizes (4–11 μm and 90–180 μm) revealed the fin...

Bending-moment faults and flexural-slip faults (FSFs), as two basic fault styles due to bending-related tangential longitudinal strain, extensively and prominently crop out as surface scarps in the Pamir-western Kunlun and southern Tian Shan regions, northwestern China. Characteristic geomorphic expression, favorable formation conditions, and the r...

Temporal and spatial scales of alluvial channel migration across active floodplains, valleys, or fans control the stratigraphic architecture of fluvial deposits, the stability of channel banks, and the formation of strath terraces across uplifting structures. Whereas the detailed pattern of channel migration is inherently stochastic, the overall ra...

Significance This paper identifies two periods of enhanced aridity that are synchronous with faunal turnovers in southern South America. Close temporal coincidence with marine climate proxies suggests a period of latest Miocene aridity was associated with a global glacial period and the expansion of C4 vegetation. We thus argue that continental ari...

Understanding the evolution of continental deformation zones relies on quantifying spatial and temporal changes in deformation rates of tectonic structures. Along the eastern boundary of the Pamir-Tian Shan collision zone, we constrain secular variations of rock uplift rates for a series of five Quaternary detachment- and fault-related folds from t...

Fluvial planation surfaces eroded into bedrock, such as straths, commonly serve as recorders of climatic and tectonic processes in uplifting landscapes. Here, we focus on planation surfaces on deforming folds in the arid Kashi foreland of the Tian Shan, NW China. Despite rapid late Quaternary uplift rates of 1-3 mm/y, rivers beveled kilometer-wide...

Valley morphologies of rivers crossing zones of active uplift range from narrow canyons to broad alluvial surfaces. They provide illuminating examples of the fundamental, but poorly understood, competition between relief creation and landscape flattening. Motivated by a field example of abandoned kilometre-wide, fluvially eroded platforms on active...

The Toro Negro Formation is a foreland sequence in western La Rioja province, Argentina, which records the late-stage tectonic evolution of the Vinchina Basin. Together with the underlying Vinchina Formation, these two units represent one of the thickest and longest continually exposed foreland sections in northwest Argentina. The Vinchina basin is...

The Humahuaca basin provides an excellent opportunity to explore both the controls on patterns of deformation within and at the margins of an intermontane basin in the Eastern Cordillera of NW Argentina and the relationships between this deformation and deposition in the basin. Thrust faults along the western margin of the northern Humahuaca basin...

The controls on the partitioning of incision and lateral erosion of rivers are still poorly understood. We present an analogue model of a growing anticline perpendicular to antecedent streams on an alluvial fan. This experiment is inspired by an example of laterally extensive beveling of actively uplifting detachment anticlines in the foreland of t...

Fold scarps, a type of geomorphic scarp formed by folding mechanisms of hinge migration or limb rotation, serve to delineate both fault-bend characteristics and folding histories, which can, in turn, illuminate tectonic processes and seismic hazards associated with thrust systems. Because the subsurface geometry of folds is commonly difficult to de...

Intermontane basins are illuminating stratigraphic archives of uplift, denudation and environmental conditions within the heart of actively growing mountain ranges. Commonly, however, it is difficult to determine from the sedimentary record of an individual basin whether basin formation, aggradation and dissection were controlled primarily by clima...

Geodetic and seismologic studies support a tectonic model for the central Himalaya wherein ~2 cm/yr of Indo-Asian convergence is accommodated along the primary décollement under the range, the Main Himalayan thrust. A steeper midcrustal ramp in the Main Himalayan thrust is commonly invoked as driving rapid rock uplift along a range-parallel band in...

Foreland basins are important recorders of tectonic and climatic processes in evolving mountain ranges. The Río Iruya canyon of NW Argentina (23°S) exposes ~7500 m of Orán Group foreland basin sediments, spanning over 8 Myr of near continuous deposition in the Central Andes. This study presents a record of sedimentary provenance for the Iruya Secti...

The flexural‐slip fault (FSF), a type of secondary fault generated by bed‐parallel slip, occurs commonly and plays an important role in accommodating fold growth. Although the kinematics and mechanics of FSFs are well studied, relatively few field observations or geometric models explore its geomorphic expression. In the Pamir‐Tian Shan convergent...

Piggyback basins on the margins of growing orogens commonly serve as sensitive recorders of the onset of thrust deformation and changes in source areas. The Bieertuokuoyi piggyback basin, located in the hanging wall of the Pamir Frontal Thrust, provides an unambiguous record of the outward growth of the northeast Pamir margin in northwest China fro...

Collision of the Kohistan island arc with Asia at -100 Ma resulted in N-S compression within the Neo-Tethys at a spreading center north of the Indo-Pakistani craton. Subsequent India-Asia convergence converted the Neo-Tethyan spreading center into a short-lived subduction zone. The hanging wall of the subduction zone became the Waziristan, Khost an...

The formation of strath surfaces (fluvially created, sub-horizontal erosion surfaces) requires that the rate of lateral erosion outpaces the rate of incision of a river. The change from incision to strath cutting has commonly been linked to a decrease of incision rates due to shielding of the river bed by a thick sediment cover1. Straths are abando...

a b s t r a c t Paleoclimatic constraints from regions at the confluence of major climate systems are particularly important in understanding past climate change. Using geomorphic mapping based on remote sensing and field investigations, combined with in situ cosmogenic 10 Be and 26 Al dating of boulders associated with glacial landforms, we invest...

In response to the Indo-Asian collision, deformation of the Tien Shan initiated at ~25 Ma along the northwestern margin of the Tarim Basin. 300 km north, the Kyrgyz Range began deforming ~15 My later. Although multiple intervening structures across the Tien Shan are currently active, the sequencing of initial deformation across the orogen's entire...

Landscape denudation in actively deforming mountain ranges is controlled by a combination of rock uplift and surface runoff induced by precipitation. Whereas the relative contribution of these factors is important to our understanding of the evolution of orogenic topography, no consensus currently exists concerning their respective influences. To a...

[1] We examine the relationship of channel steepness to incision rate from channels eroding into a previously tilted, planar, and progressively exhumed unconformity surface cut across erosionally resistant limestone bedrock. Key to this analysis is the calibrated substitution of down-slope and downstream distance for time of exposure of resistant r...

The collision between the Pamir and the Tian Shan is a type example of intracontinental collision. GPS studies show that in Northwest China, at the junction between the Tarim basin, the Pamir and the Tian Shan, 7-9 mm/y of north-south shortening are presently accommodated across the boundary between the two orogens. Here, the deformation has mostly...

[1] Recent studies of the northeastern part of the Tibetan Plateau have called attention to two emerging views of how the Tibetan Plateau has grown. First, deformation in northern Tibet began essentially at the time of collision with India, not 10–20 Myr later as might be expected if the locus of activity migrated northward as India penetrated the...

deformation in three dimensions involves shortening, uplift, and lateral growth. Fluvial terraces represent strain markers that have been widely applied to constrain a fold's shortening and uplift. For the lateral growth, however, the utility of fluvial terraces has been commonly ignored. Situated along northern margin of Chinese Pamir, the Mushi a...

Tectonic geomorphology is the study of the interplay between tectonic and surface processes that shape the landscape in regions of active deformation and at time scales ranging from days to millions of years. Over the past decade, recent advances in the quantification of both rates and the physical basis of tectonic and surface processes have under...

Whereas the existence of pronounced orbitally controlled periodicities is a major feature of Earth climate, its impact on landscape dynamics remains poorly understood. We use a Landscape Evolution Model (LEM) to systematically investigate the response of landscapes to a range of periodic oscillations in precipitation. The resulting sediment-flux e...

The Cenozoic Indo-Asian collision caused the impingement of the north-verging Pamir orogen with the south-verging Tian Shan. Rapid convergence rates of 8-12 mm/y across the Pamir-Tian Shan boundary are suggested by GPS measurements and broadly match Holocene and Quaternary shortening rates. The shortening is dominantly accommodated by a series of o...

Between June and September each year, the Indian monsoon typically delivers about 80% of the Nepalese Himalaya's annual precipitation. Topography on the windward (southern) flank of the range modulates persistent spatial variations in precipitation along the length of the range. Where topography is stepped with an initial abrupt rise as the Himalay...

ABSTRACT The past decade has seen a rapid increase in the application of high-resolution imagery and geographic-based information systems across every segment of society from security intelligence to product marketing to scientific research. Google Earth has ...

Several processes contribute to denudation in high-mountain environments. Of these, glacial erosion is particularly difficult to constrain, despite its critical importance in the evolution of many mountain ranges. In this study, we present a new data set of 10Be concentrations in fluvial sediments sampled along the Marsyandi River and its main trib...

Across contractional orogens, the equivalency between decadal convergence rates from geodetic GPS data and geologic shortening rates at time scales of thousands or millions of years has rarely been documented. Here, we present an example from the northern margin of Chinese Pamir, where the Main Pamir Thrust is tectonically quiescent, and recent def...

Two of the most popular mechanisms for thickening the crust beneath the Tibetan Plateau are (1) pure shear with faulting and folding in the upper crust and horizontal shortening below and (2) flow of lower or middle crust without significant shortening of the upper crust. To help discriminate between the relative contributions of these two mechanis...

Sedimentary rocks in Tibetan Plateau basins archive the spatiotemporal patterns of deformation, erosion, and associated climate change that resulted from Cenozoic continental collision. Despite growing understanding of basin development in northeastern Tibet during initial India-Asia collision, as well as in the late Miocene-Holocene, surprisingly...

Differences in the timing of glacial advances, which are commonly attributed to climatic changes, can be due to variations in valley topography. Cosmogenic Be-10 dates from 24 glacial moraine boulders in 5 valleys define two age populations, late-glacial and early Holocene. Moraine ages correlate with paleoglacier valley hypsometries. Moraines in v...

Palaeoseismic trenching along the central Ostler fault zone reveals the nature and timing of past surface-rupturing earthquakes. A 26 m long trench excavated into a last-glacial (26.5 ka) outwash surface cut by the Ruataniwha strand of the North Central Ostler fault reveals evidence for at least two metre-scale surface displacements in the last c....

In the northwestern India-Eurasia collision zone, the northern margin of the Pamirs has indented northward by ~300 km during the late Cenozoic, accommodated by south-dipping intracontinental subduction along the Main Pamir Thrust (MPT) and the Pamir Frontal Thrust (PFT) coupled to sinistral slip on the western margin and dextral slip along the Kash...

Using an integrated geomorphic-paleoseismic approach, we evaluate temporal patterns of fault-related, late Quaternary deformation along the Genoa fault at the eastern boundary of the central Sierra Nevada, California-Nevada. The Genoa fault is experiencing some of the highest strain rates and fastest Holocene slip rates in the western Great Basin....

Numerous theoretical, numerical modeling, and field studies have focused on understanding the relationship between bedrock channel morphology and landscape evolution metrics in tectonically active orogens. The goal of these studies has been to quantify and establish predictive channel network metrics (channel dimensions and energy slopes) for asses...

Most transverse rivers draining the Himalaya originate near the topographic crest of the range. Notable exceptions include the Indus, Sutlej, Arun, and Tsangpo rivers, which drain broad regions of the Tibetan Plateau before cutting across the range via steep, narrow gorges. We hypothesize that headwardly eroding, south-draining river systems occasi...

In Central Asia's Tien Shan, deformation is distributed across the wide orogen, a characteristic of intracontinental mountain building. Active faults are commonly found within intramontane basins that separate its constituent ranges. In order to explore the controls on this intramontane basin deformation, we study the Naryn Basin of south-central K...

Near-field techniquesFar-field techniquesSummary

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Stress, strain, and faultsThe earthquake cycleAsperities, barriers, and characteristic earthquakesDisplacement variations along a fault, fault growth, and fault segmentationGeomorphic expression of faultsFoldsSummary

While emphasizing new insights from the last decade of research, Tectonic Geomorphology reviews the fundamentals of the subject which include the nature of ...

The role of bedrock fractures and rock mass strength is often considered a primary influence on the efficiency of surface processes and the morphology of landscapes. Quantifying bedrock characteristics at hillslope scales, however, has proven difficult. Here, we present a new field-based method for quantifying the depth and apparent density of bedr...

We present a mechanical analysis of the problem of slip partitioning between the major thrust systems in a collisional range. We focus on two structures in the Himalayas of central Nepal: the Main Himalayan Thrust (MHT) and the Main Central Thrust (MCT). We use finite element modeling to test the influence of various parameters, such as friction co...

We use paleomagnetic data from Tertiary volcanic rocks to address the rates and timing of vertical-axis block rotations across the central Sierra Nevada-Walker Lane transition in the Bodie Hills, California/Nevada. Samples from the Upper Miocene (˜9 Ma) Eureka Valley Tuff suggest clockwise vertical-axis block rotations between NE-striking left-late...

The western Tarim Basin is a convergent zone of the Southwestern Tianshan and the Pamir,and there have been big debates about its exact boundary. However,in the Mayikake Basin,the boundaries of two tectonic systems are very clear; the north-vergent Pamir Front Thrust is the leading edge of the Pamir,and south-vergent thrust at south limb of the Wul...

Locating at eastern end of the Pamir Front Thrust( PFT) ,the Mushi anticline grows initiating from early-Pleistocene till now. The anticline,with a gentle south limb and steep north limb,outcrops Pliocene Atushi formation and lower-Pleistocene Xiyu formation. Topographic profiles and drainage pattern indicate the lateral growth of the anticline fro...

As soon as a fold begins to grow above base level, it becomes subject to erosion. A numerical model of simultaneous fold growth and river erosion captures the early stages of channel formation and delineates the evolution of longitudinal channel profiles. This numerical exploration suggests that the patterns of channel incision into growing folds c...

We use 10Be surface exposure dating to construct a high-resolution chronology of glacial fluctuations in the Sierra Nevada, California. Most previous studies focused on individual glaciated valleys, whereas our study compares chronologies developed throughout the range to identify regional patterns in the timing of glacier response to major climate...

Temporal variations in the orientation of Cenozoic range growth in northeastern Tibet define two modes by which India-Asia convergence was accommodated. Thermochronological age-elevation transects from the hanging walls of two major thrust-fault systems reveal diachronous Miocene exhumation of the Laji-Jishi Shan in northeastern Tibet. Whereas acce...

Patterns in fault slip rates through time and space are examined across the transition from the Sierra Nevada to the Eastern California Shear Zone–Walker Lane belt. At each of four sites along the eastern Sierra Nevada frontal fault zone between 38 and 39° N latitude, geomorphic markers, such as glacial moraines and outwash terraces, are displaced...

Numerical models suggest that spatial variations in precipitation play an important role in determining the location and magnitude of deformation. To the extent that erosion rates are controlled by stream power, which depends on the amount of precipitation, the spatial pattern of exhumation rates should correlate with the pattern of precipitation....

Lithologic, magnetostratigraphic, and stable isotope records from the Neogene Xunhua and Linxia basins along the Tibetan Plateau's northeastern margin suggest that topography in the intervening Jishi Shan mountain range began to develop between 16 and 11 Ma. Perturbations to local climate patterns resulting from the evolution of local topography ar...

The Pamir salient defines the northwestern end of the Himalayan-Tibetan orogen and has overthrust the Tajik-Tarim basin to the north by ~300km along a late Cenozoic, south-dipping intracontinental subduction zone (Burtman and Molnar, 1993). The Quaternary deformation of the salient are concentrated on the outer margins: the sinistral Darvaz fault o...

In active orogens, intermontane basins commonly form adjacent to areas of uplift. The Bieertuokuoyi Basin is an intermontane basin in a rapidly deforming region of NW China. The basin, located in the hanging wall of the Pamir Frontal Thrust, was formed in response to uplift and slip on two major faults: the Pamir Frontal Thrust, located ~12 km to t...

A series of 5 balanced cross-sections across the Naryn Basin, Kyrgyzstan, reveals a transition in patterns of faulting. Each section is based on surface mapping of deformed basin-filling strata. Beginning in the 25-km-wide Eastern Naryn Basin, deformation within the basin is attributed to faults that are low-angle splays of the northern basin-bound...

The feedbacks between climate, sedimentation, erosion, and deformation are important controls on the growth of orogenic plateaus. We wish to test the two-part hypothesis that (1) formation of internally drained basins is contemporaneous with periods of aridity and the outward propagation of deformation toward the foreland, whereas (2) breaching and...

Bedrock fractures and rock-mass strength play a primary role in governing landscape morphology and the efficiency of surface processes. Quantifying bedrock characteristics at hillslope scales, however, has proven difficult. Here, we present a new field-based method for quantifying bedrock fracture densities within the shallow subsurface based on se...

The hypothesis that CO2 consumption by chemical weathering is enhanced by the exposure of fresh minerals provides a mechanism linking tectonic, geomorphic, and atmospheric processes. We present data from the High Himalayas of Nepal indicating a positive linear relationship between cation weathering rate and suspended sediment yield. Because of a st...

Bedrock fracturing and rock strength are widely believed to influence landscape morphology and erosional resistance. Yet, understanding of the quantitative relationship between rock-mass strength and landscape evolution remains limited. Here we present a new application of seismic refraction surveys that uses variations in seismic velocity to inter...

The hydrological budget of Himalayan rivers is dominated by monsoonal rainfall and snowmelt, but their relative impact is not well established because this remote region lacks a dense gauge network. Here, we use a combination of validated remotely-sensed climate parameters to characterize the spatiotemporal distribution of rainfall, snowfall, and e...

Rarely are geologic records available to constrain the spatial and temporal evolution of thrust-fault growth as slip accumulates during repeated earthquake events. Here, we utilize multiple generations of dated and deformed fluvial terraces to explore two key aspects of the along-strike kinematic development of the Ostler fault zone in southern New...

The role of major strike-slip faults in the Indo-Asian collision zone is central to our understanding of the ways in which continental crust and lithosphere deform in response to continental collision. We investigated how slip varies along the eastern segments of the Kunlun fault in northeastern Tibet. Millennial slip rates were determined based on...

The relationship of sediment flux to surface slope is a predominant control on the evolution of transport-limited hillslopes. Although both linear and nonlinear sediment flux models have been proposed and widely debated, this functional relationship remains one of the outstanding questions in geomorphology. We examine degradation of fluvial terrace...

The role of bedrock fractures and rock-mass strength is often considered a primary influence on the efficiency of surface processes. Quantifying bedrock characteristics at hillslope scales, however, has proven exceedingly difficult. Here, we present a new field-based method for quantifying bedrock fracture densities within the shallow subsurface ba...

Because surface processes can frequently remove, mask or suppress the surface expression of faults, geophysical imaging is needed to provide information on the geometric expression of the fault in the subsurface, including dips, the presence or absence of splays and folds and the nature of the material in the fault plane. Subsurface data become esp...

A new division of Middle and Late Pleistocene alluvial sequence in the north piedmont of the Chinese Tian Shan based on geomorphologic, stratigraphic, and chronologic criteria provides a framework for examining their relationship to climate change during glacial–interglacial transitions. Over the past 550kyr at least four major alluviation episodes...

As soon as a fold begins to grow above base level, it becomes subject to erosion. A numerical model of simultaneous deformation and erosion captures the early stages of channel formation. In this model, erosion is cast as a function of stream power, and area is used as a proxy for discharge. Initially, the pattern of channel incision is sensitive t...

The ability to infer tectonic uplift rates based on the topography of a landscape has been the impetus of much work in the field of tectonic geomorphology. Recent studies have focused on studying stream channel response to tectonic forcing as a possible way to interpret uplift rates from topography. Much of this work has used a power law model that...

Recent studies indicate that variations in surface loads associated with the evolution of ice caps or lakes can modulate the stress pattern inside the crust [e.g. Hampel et al., 2007; Luttrell et al., 2007; Turpeinen et al., 2008]. In particular these studies point out that such variations may be large enough to change the stress acting on faults a...

The Tian Shan in NW China is one of the most active regions of intracontinental deformation in the world, accommodating a large fraction (~40%) of the shortening from the Indo-Eurasian collision. The western Tarim Basin, situated between the southern Tian Shan and Pamir Mountains, manifests this deformation through a series of east-west trending fa...

Variations in the direction and timing of range growth demonstrate how India-Asia convergence was manifest in northeastern Tibet (near 36°N, 103°E) throughout the Cenozoic. We detect a >45° change in shortening direction in middle Miocene time by examining thermochronological relief transects from contractional ranges in combination with stratigrap...

The idea that erosion can drive tectonics and vice versa within active collisional mountain belts is widely accepted. A vigorous debate has ensued, however, concerning the role climate plays in driving foci of erosion and subsequently tectonics. Numerous studies have documented spatial coincidence between foci of modern precipitation and long-term...

The major ion chemistry of the Marsyandi basin and six of its tributaries in the Nepalese Himalaya have been investigated during the monsoon months of 2002. Weekly water samples taken at 10 river monitoring stations in the Annapurna watershed over the course of 4 months provide chemical weathering data for the region at an unprecedented temporal an...

Three successive zones of fault-related folds disrupt the proximal part of the northern Tian Shan foreland in NW China. A new magnetostratigraphy of the Taxi He section on the north limb of the Tugulu anticline in the middle deformed zone clarifies the chronology of both tectonic deformation and depositional evolution of this collisional mountain b...

The deformed proximal margin of the Himalayan foreland basin of northern India and Pakistan contains a sequence of over 3000 m of Neogene and Quaternary clastic rocks known as the Siwalik Group. These rocks record the influence of external tectonic controls exerted by the adjacent Himalayan orogenic belt together with internal, syndepositional stru...

In order to help delineate the succession of late Cenozoic tectonic and stratigraphic events in the north-western Himalayan foredeep and adjacent ranges, a geological transect is described which extends from the north-eastern margin of the Kashmir Basin to the axis of the Jhelum Re-entrant along the eastern boundary of the Potwar Plateau. When comb...

During much of the middle and late Miocene, the Northwest Himalayan foreland basin was dominated by a large, eastward flowing, axial fluvial system analogous to the modern Ganges drainage. As structural deformation encroached on the foreland during latest Miocene to Pleistocene, the foreland became increasingly partitioned. One of the earliest defi...

Single-crystal dating of detrital mineral grains confers a remarkable ability to reconstruct cooling histories of orogens and to place limits on the timing, magnitude, and spatial variations of erosion. Numerous grains from a detrital sample are typically dated, and the statistical variability between populations of ages in different samples provid...

Hanging fluvial valleys form at mouths of tributaries that are unable to incise as quickly as the trunk stream. Although hanging valleys at tributary mouths are uncommon, in very rapidly eroding ranges, such as the Himalaya, they can attain heights of ˜1 km and display mean channel slopes exceeding 30°. Given a hypothesis based on bed load-saltatio...

Mountain ranges impact climate and climate change through multiple mechanisms, including the control of the pathways moisture follows across the landscape, patterns of orographic precipitation as storms impinge on the flanks of mountains, the enhancement of summer monsoons, and the magnitude of continentality. The chemical composition of the atmosp...

Numerical and conceptual models that invoke feedbacks between surface and tectonic processes make the common assumption that higher rainfall drives higher erosion rates. This assumption was tested in the High Himalayas of Nepal by monitoring the suspended sediment flux of rivers that span a steep rainfall gradient. The suspended sediment flux data...

Monitoring changes in alpine glaciers is crucial to understanding the impacts of global climate change because alpine glacier systems respond quickly to changes in the earth´s climate. The glaciers of the Sierra Nevada and southern Cascades are of particular interest because they provide a major water reservoir to the state of California. Oddly, wh...