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  -