TY  - JOUR
A1  - Rohrmann, Alexander
A1  - Heermance, Richard
A1  - Kapp, Paul
A1  - Cai, Fulong
T1  - Wind as the primary driver of erosion in the Qaidam Basin, China
JF  - Earth & planetary science letters
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 Be-10 in exhumed Miocene sedimentary bedrock. Sedimentary bedrock erosion rates range from 0.05 to 0.4 mm/yr, although the majority of measurements cluster at 0.125 +/- 0.05 mm/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  - wind
KW  - cosmogenic nuclide-dating
KW  - earth surface processes
KW  - Chinese Loess Plateau
KW  - climate
KW  - Asia
Y1  - 2013
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2013.03.011
SN  - 0012-821X
VL  - 374
SP  - 1
EP  - 10
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Amsterdam
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Rohrmann, Alexander
A1  - Kapp, Paul
A1  - Carrapa, Barbara
A1  - Reiners, Peter W.
A1  - Guynn, Jerome
A1  - Ding, Lin
A1  - Heizler, Matthew
T1  - Thermochronologic evidence for plateau formation in central Tibet by 45 Ma
JF  - Geology
N2  - The timing of Tibetan plateau development remains elusive, despite its importance for evaluating models of continental lithosphere deformation and associated changes in surface elevation and climate. We present new thermochronologic data [biotite and K-feldspar Ar-40/Ar-39, apatite fission track, and apatite (U-Th)/He] from the central Tibetan plateau (Lhasa and Qiangtang terranes). The data indicate that over large regions, rocks underwent rapid to moderate cooling and exhumation during Cretaceous to Eocene time. This was coeval with >50% upper crustal shortening, suggesting substantial crustal thickening and surface elevation gain. Thermal modeling of combined thermochronometers requires exhumation of most samples to depths of <3 km between 85 and 45 Ma, followed by a decrease in erosional exhumation rate to low values of <0.05 mm/yr. The thermochronological results, when interpreted in the context of the deformation and paleoaltimetric history, are best explained by a scenario of plateau growth that began locally in central Tibet during the Late Cretaceous and expanded to encompass most of central Tibet by 45 Ma.
Y1  - 2012
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1130/G32530.1
SN  - 0091-7613
VL  - 40
IS  - 2
SP  - 187
EP  - 190
PB  - American Institute of Physics
CY  - Boulder
ER  - 
TY  - GEN
A1  - Rohrmann, Alexander
A1  - Heermance, Richard
A1  - Kapp, Paul
A1  - Cai, Fulong
T1  - Wind as the primary driver of erosion in the Qaidam Basin, China (vol 374, pg 1, 2013)
T2  - Earth & planetary science letters
Y1  - 2015
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2015.10.011
SN  - 0012-821X
SN  - 1385-013X
VL  - 432
SP  - 501
EP  - 501
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Amsterdam
ER  -