@article{HetzelNiedermannTaoetal.2006,
  author    = {Hetzel, Ralf and Niedermann, Samuel and Tao, Mingxin and Kubik, Peter W. and Strecker, Manfred},
  title     = {Climatic versus tectonic control on river incision at the margin of NE Tibet: Be-10 exposure dating of river terraces at the mountain front of the Qilian Shan},
  series = {Journal of geophysical research : Earth surface},
  volume    = {111},
  journal   = {Journal of geophysical research : Earth surface},
  publisher = {Union},
  address   = {Washington},
  issn      = {2169-9003},
  doi       = {10.1029/2005JF000352},
  pages     = {13},
  year      = {2006},
  abstract  = {[1] We document late Pleistocene - Holocene aggradation and incision processes at the mountain front of the Qilian Shan, an active intracontinental fold-and-thrust belt accommodating a significant portion of the India-Asia convergence. The Shiyou River cuts through a NNE vergent fault propagation fold with Miocene red beds in the core and Pliocene - Quaternary growth strata on the northern forelimb. South of the anticline, Miocene strata dip 20 degrees SSW, suggesting a similar orientation for the basal decollement. After aggradation of an similar to 150-m-thick, late Pleistocene valley fill, the Shiyou River formed three terraces. The highest terrace, located 170 m above the river, constitutes the top of the fill. The other terraces are fill cut terraces: their treads are located 130 - 105 m and 37 m above the river, respectively. The 10 Be exposure dating of the terraces suggests that river incision accelerated from 0.8 +/- 0.2 mm yr(-1) to similar to 10 mm yr(-1) at 10 - 15 kyr. We interpret fast Holocene river incision as largely unrelated to tectonic forcing. The late Pleistocene incision rate of 0.8 +/- 0.2 mm yr(-1) places an upper limit of 2.2 +/- 0.5 mm yr(-1) on the horizontal shortening rate, assuming that incision is solely caused by rock uplift above a decollement dipping 20 degrees. However, the actual shortening rate may lie between similar to 2.2 mm yr(-1) and zero because deformation of the terraces and the valley fill cannot be unequivocally demonstrated. Our estimate is consistent with the bulk shortening rate of similar to 5 - 10 mm yr(-1) across several faults in NE Tibet derived from neotectonic and GPS data, although in case of the Shiyou River, Holocene deformation is barely discernible owing to intense climate-induced river incision.},
  language  = {en}
}