TY - JOUR A1 - Biswas, R. H. A1 - Herman, F. A1 - King, G. E. A1 - Braun, Jean T1 - Thermoluminescence of feldspar as a multi-thermochronometer to constrain the temporal variation of rock exhumation in the recent past JF - Earth & planetary science letters N2 - Natural thermoluminescence (TL) in rocks reflects a dynamic equilibrium between radiation-induced TL growth and decay via thermal and athermal pathways. When rocks exhume through Earth's crust and cool from high to low temperature, this equilibrium level increases as the temperature dependent thermal decay decreases. This phenomenon can be exploited to extract thermal histories of rocks. The main advantage of TL is that a single TL glow curve has a wide range of thermal stabilities (lifetime 100 °C/Ma, whereas deeper traps, i.e. with higher activation energies, provide constraints on thermal histories for higher cooling rates (>300 °C/Ma). Finally, we show how the path of rock exhumation (i.e., depth vs. time) can be constrained using an inverse approach. The newly developed methodology is applied to rapidly cooled samples from the Namche Barwa massif, eastern Himalaya to suggest a trend in exhumation rate with time that follows an inverse correlation with global temperature and glaciers equilibrium altitude line (ELA). KW - TL of feldspar KW - TL-thermochronology KW - multi-thermochronometer KW - rock exhumation KW - Namche Barwa Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2018.04.030 SN - 0012-821X SN - 1385-013X VL - 495 SP - 56 EP - 68 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - GEN A1 - Braun, Jean T1 - Response to comment by Japsen et al. on "A review of numerical modeling studies of passive margin escarpments leading to a new analytical expression for the rate of escarpment migration velocity" T2 - Gondwana research : international geoscience journal ; official journal of the International Association for Gondwana Research Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gr.2018.10.003 SN - 1342-937X SN - 1878-0571 VL - 65 SP - 174 EP - 176 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Braun, Jean T1 - Comparing the transport-limited and ξ-q models for sediment transport JF - Earth surface dynamics N2 - Here I present a comparison between two of the most widely used reduced-complexity models for the representation of sediment transport and deposition processes, namely the transport-limited (or TL) model and the under-capacity (or xi-q) model more recently developed by Davy and Lague (2009). Using both models, I investigate the behavior of a sedimentary continental system of length L fed by a fixed sedimentary flux from a catchment of size A(0) in a nearby active orogen through which sediments transit to a fixed base level representing a large river, a lake or an ocean. This comparison shows that the two models share the same steady-state solution, for which I derive a simple 1D analytical expression that reproduces the major features of such sedimentary systems: a steep fan that connects to a shallower alluvial plain. The resulting fan geometry obeys basic observational constraints on fan size and slope with respect to the upstream drainage area, A(0). The solution is strongly dependent on the size of the system, L, in comparison to a distance L-0, which is determined by the size of A(0), and gives rise to two fundamentally different types of sedimentary systems: a constrained system where L < L-0 and open systems where L > L-0. I derive simple expressions that show the dependence of the system response time on the system characteristics, such as its length, the size of the upstream catchment area, the amplitude of the incoming sedimentary flux and the respective rate parameters (diffusivity or erodibility) for each of the two models. I show that the xi-q model predicts longer response times. I demonstrate that although the manner in which signals propagates through the sedimentary system differs greatly between the two models, they both predict that perturbations that last longer than the response time of the system can be recorded in the stratigraphy of the sedimentary system and in particular of the fan. Interestingly, the xi-q model predicts that all perturbations in the incoming sedimentary flux will be transmitted through the system, whereas the TL model predicts that rapid perturbations cannot. I finally discuss why and under which conditions these differences are important and propose observational ways to determine which of the two models is most appropriate to represent natural systems. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-10-301-2022 SN - 2196-6311 SN - 2196-632X VL - 10 IS - 2 SP - 301 EP - 327 PB - Copernicus CY - Göttingen ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Braun, Jean A1 - Gemignani, Lorenzo A1 - van der Beek, Peter T1 - Extracting information on the spatial variability in erosion rate stored in detrital cooling age distributions in river sands JF - Earth surface dynamics N2 - One of the main purposes of detrital thermochronology is to provide constraints on the regional-scale exhumation rate and its spatial variability in actively eroding mountain ranges. Procedures that use cooling age distributions coupled with hypsometry and thermal models have been developed in order to extract quantitative estimates of erosion rate and its spatial distribution, assuming steady state between tectonic uplift and erosion. This hypothesis precludes the use of these procedures to assess the likely transient response of mountain belts to changes in tectonic or climatic forcing. Other methods are based on an a priori knowledge of the in situ distribution of ages to interpret the detrital age distributions. In this paper, we describe a simple method that, using the observed detrital mineral age distributions collected along a river, allows us to extract information about the relative distribution of erosion rates in an eroding catchment without relying on a steady-state assumption, the value of thermal parameters or an a priori knowledge of in situ age distributions. The model is based on a relatively low number of parameters describing lithological variability among the various sub-catchments and their sizes and only uses the raw ages. The method we propose is tested against synthetic age distributions to demonstrate its accuracy and the optimum conditions for it use. In order to illustrate the method, we invert age distributions collected along the main trunk of the Tsangpo-Siang-Brahmaputra river system in the eastern Himalaya. From the inversion of the cooling age distributions we predict present-day erosion rates of the catchments along the Tsangpo-Siang-Brahmaputra river system, as well as some of its tributaries. We show that detrital age distributions contain dual information about present-day erosion rate, i. e., from the predicted distribution of surface ages within each catchment and from the relative contribution of any given catchment to the river distribution. The method additionally allows comparing modern erosion rates to long-term exhumation rates. We provide a simple implementation of the method in Python code within a Jupyter Notebook that includes the data used in this paper for illustration purposes. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-6-257-2018 SN - 2196-6311 SN - 2196-632X VL - 6 IS - 1 SP - 257 EP - 270 PB - Copernicus CY - Göttingen ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Cordonnier, Guillaume A1 - Bovy, Benoit A1 - Braun, Jean T1 - A versatile, linear complexity algorithm for flow routing in topographies with depressions JF - Earth surface dynamics N2 - We present a new algorithm for solving the common problem of flow trapped in closed depressions within digital elevation models, as encountered in many applications relying on flow routing. Unlike other approaches (e.g., the Priority-Flood depression filling algorithm), this solution is based on the explicit computation of the flow paths both within and across the depressions through the construction of a graph connecting together all adjacent drainage basins. Although this represents many operations, a linear time complexity can be reached for the whole computation, making it very efficient. Compared to the most optimized solutions proposed so far, we show that this algorithm of flow path enforcement yields the best performance when used in landscape evolution models. In addition to its efficiency, our proposed method also has the advantage of letting the user choose among different strategies of flow path enforcement within the depressions (i.e., filling vs. carving). Furthermore, the computed graph of basins is a generic structure that has the potential to be reused for solving other problems as well, such as the simulation of erosion. This sequential algorithm may be helpful for those who need to, e.g., process digital elevation models of moderate size on single computers or run batches of simulations as part of an inference study. Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-7-549-2019 SN - 2196-6311 SN - 2196-632X VL - 7 IS - 2 SP - 549 EP - 562 PB - Copernicus CY - Göttingen ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Deal, Eric A1 - Braun, Jean A1 - Botter, Gianluca T1 - Understanding the role of rainfall and hydrology in determining fluvial erosion efficiency JF - Journal of geophysical research : Earth surface N2 - Due to the challenges in upscaling daily climatic forcing to geological time, physically realistic models describing how rainfall drives fluvial erosion are lacking. To bridge this gap between short-term hydrology and long-term geomorphology, we derive a theoretical framework for long-term fluvial erosion rates driven by realistic climate by integrating an established stochastic-mechanistic model of hydrology into a threshold-stochastic formulation of stream power. The hydrological theory provides equations for the daily streamflow probability distribution as a function of climatic boundary conditions. The new parameters introduced are rooted firmly in established climatic and hydrological theory. This allows us to account for how fluvial erosion rates respond to changes in rainfall intensity, frequency, evapotranspiration rates, and soil moisture dynamics in a way that is consistent with existing theories. We use this framework to demonstrate how hydroclimatic conditions and erosion threshold magnitude control the degree of nonlinearity between steepness index and erosion rate. We find that hydrological processes can have a significant influence on how erosive a particular climatic forcing will be. By accounting for the influence of hydrology on fluvial erosion, we conclude that climate is an important control on erosion rates and long-term landscape evolution. Y1 - 2108 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/2017JF004393 SN - 2169-9003 SN - 2169-9011 VL - 123 IS - 4 SP - 744 EP - 778 PB - American Geophysical Union CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Herman, Frederic A1 - Braun, Jean A1 - Deal, Eric A1 - Prasicek, Gunther T1 - The response time of glacial erosion JF - Journal of geophysical research : Earth surface N2 - There has been recent progress in the understanding of the evolution of Quaternary climate. Simultaneously, there have been improvements in the understanding of glacial erosion processes, with better parameter constraints. Despite this, there remains much debate about whether or not the observed cooling over the Quaternary has driven an increase in glacial erosion rates. Most studies agree that the erosional response to climate change must be transient; therefore, the time scale of the climatic change and the response time of glacial erosion must be accounted for. Here we analyze the equations governing glacial erosion in a steadily uplifting landscape with variable climatic forcing and derive expressions for two fundamental response time scales. The first time scale describes the response of the glacier and the second one the glacial erosion response. We find that glaciers have characteristic time scales of the order of 10 to 10,000 years, while the characteristic time scale for glacial erosion is of the order of a few tens of thousands to a few million years. We then use a numerical model to validate the approximations made to derive the analytical solutions. The solutions show that short period forcing is dampened by the glacier response time, and long period forcing (>1 Myr) may be dampened by erosional response of glaciers when the rock uplift rates are high. In most tectonic and climatic conditions, we expect to see the strongest response of glacial erosion to periodic climatic forcing corresponding to Plio-Pleistocene climatic cycles. Finally, we use the numerical model to predict the response of glacial systems to the observed climatic forcing of the Quaternary, including, but not limited to, the Milankovich periods and the long-term secular cooling trend. We conclude that an increase of glacial erosion in response to Quaternary cooling is physically plausible, and we show that the magnitude of the increase depends on rock uplift and ice accumulation rates. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/2017JF004586 SN - 2169-9003 SN - 2169-9011 VL - 123 IS - 4 SP - 801 EP - 817 PB - American Geophysical Union CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Margirier, Audrey A1 - Braun, Jean A1 - Gautheron, Cecile A1 - Carcaillet, Julien A1 - Schwartz, Stephane A1 - Jamme, Rosella Pinna A1 - Stanley, Jessica T1 - Climate control on Early Cenozoic denudation of the Namibian margin as deduced from new thermochronological constraints JF - Earth & planetary science letters N2 - The processes that control long term landscape evolution in continental interiors and, in particular, along passive margins such as in southern Africa, are still the subject of much debate (e.g. Braun, 2018). Although today the Namibian margin is characterized by an arid climate, it has experienced climatic fluctuations during the Cenozoic and, yet, to date no study has documented the potential role of climate on its erosion history. In western Namibia, the Brandberg Massif, an erosional remnant or inselberg, provides a good opportunity to document the Cenozoic denudation history of the margin using the relationship between rock cooling or exhumation ages and their elevation. Here we provide new apatite (UThSm)/He dates on the Brandberg Inselberg that range from 151 +/- 12 to 30 +/- 2 Ma. Combined with existing apatite fission track data, they yield new constraints on the denudation history of the margin. These data document two main cooling phases since continental break-up 130 Myr ago, a rapid one (similar to 10 degrees C/Myr) following break-up and a slower one (similar to 12 degrees C/Myr) between 65 and 35 Ma. We interpret them respectively to be related to escarpment erosion following rifting and continental break-up and as a phase of enhanced denudation during the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum. We propose that during the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum chemical weathering was important and contributed significantly to the denudation of the Namibian margin and the formation of a pediplain around the Brandberg and enhanced valley incision within the massif. Additionally, aridification of the region since 35 Ma has resulted in negligible denudation rates since that time. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. KW - climate KW - Early Eocene Climatic Optimum KW - apatite (U-Th-Sm)/He thermochronology KW - denudation KW - weathering KW - Namibian passive margin Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2019.115779 SN - 0012-821X SN - 1385-013X VL - 527 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Murray, Kendra E. A1 - Braun, Jean A1 - Reiners, Peter W. T1 - Toward Robust Interpretation of Low-Temperature Thermochronometers in Magmatic Terranes JF - Geochemistry, geophysics, geosystems N2 - Many regions central to our understanding of tectonics and landscape evolution are active or ancient magmatic terranes, and robust interpretation of low-temperature thermochronologic ages in these settings requires careful attention to the drivers of rock heating and cooling, including magmatism. However, we currently lack a quantitative framework for evaluating the potential role of magmatic coolingthat is, post-magmatic thermal relaxationin shaping cooling age patterns in regions with a history of intrusive magmatism. Here we use analytical approximations and numerical models to characterize how low-temperature thermochronometers document cooling inside and around plutons in steadily exhuming environments. Our models predict that the thermal field a pluton intrudes into, specifically the ambient temperatures relative to the closure temperature of a given thermochronometer, is as important as the pluton size and temperature in controlling the pattern and extent of thermochronometer resetting in the country rocks around a pluton. We identify one advective and several conductive timescales that govern the relationship between the crystallization and cooling ages inside a pluton. In synthetic vertical age-elevation relationships (AERs), resetting next to plutons results in changes in AER slope that could be misinterpreted as past changes in exhumation rate if the history of magmatism is not accounted for. Finally, we find that large midcrustal plutons, such as those emplaced at similar to 10-15-km depth, can reset the low-temperature thermochronometers far above them in the upper crusta result with considerable consequences for thermochronology in arcs and regions with a history of magmatic activity that may not have a surface expression. KW - He thermochronology KW - Peclet number KW - age-elevation relationships Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GC007595 SN - 1525-2027 VL - 19 IS - 10 SP - 3739 EP - 3763 PB - American Geophysical Union CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Neuharth, Derek A1 - Brune, Sascha A1 - Glerum, Anne A1 - Morley, Chris K. A1 - Yuan, Xiaoping A1 - Braun, Jean T1 - Flexural strike-slip basins JF - Geology : a venture in earth science reporting / the Geological Society of America N2 - Strike-slip faults are classically associated with pull-apart basins where continental crust is thinned between two laterally offset fault segments. We propose a subsidence mechanism to explain the formation of a new type of basin where no substantial segment offset or synstrike-slip thinning is observed. Such "flexural strike-slip basins" form due to a sediment load creating accommodation space by bending the lithosphere. We use a two-way coupling between the geodynamic code ASPECT and surface-processes code FastScape to show that flexural strike-slip basins emerge if sediment is deposited on thin lithosphere close to a strike slip fault. These conditions were met at the Andaman Basin Central fault (Andaman Sea, Indian Ocean), where seismic reflection data provide evidence of a laterally extensive flexural basin with a depocenter located parallel to the strike-slip fault trace. Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1130/G49351.1 SN - 0091-7613 SN - 1943-2682 VL - 50 IS - 3 SP - 361 EP - 365 PB - American Institute of Physics CY - Boulder ER -