River Sediment Geochemistry as a Conservative Mixture of Source Regions: Observations and Predictions From the Cairngorms, UK

The elemental composition of sediments in rivers is the product of physical and chemical erosion of rocks, which is then transported across drainage networks. A corollary is that fluvial sedimentary geochemistry can be used to understand geologic, climatic, and geomorphic processes. Here, we predict...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of geophysical research. Earth surface 2020-12, Vol.125 (12), p.n/a
Main Authors: Lipp, Alex G., Roberts, Gareth G., Whittaker, Alexander C., Gowing, Charles J. B., Fernandes, Victoria M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Beryllium
Calcium
Carbon dioxide
Chemical composition
Chemical reactions
Chemistry
Climate change
Data
Data acquisition
Downstream
Downstream effects
Drainage
Drainage basins
Drainage patterns
Drawdown
Elevation
erosion
Erosion rates
First principles
Fluvial sediments
geochemical survey
Geochemistry
Geology
Geomorphology
landscape evolution models
Magnesium
Mountain climates
Mountains
Networks
Orogeny
Potassium
Predictions
Principal components analysis
Regions
River basins
River sediments
River water chemistry
Rivers
Rocks
Rubidium
Sediment
sedimentary geochemistry
Sediments
Sensitivity analysis
Storage
stream power law
Strontium
Substrates
Surveying
Tectonics
Uranium
Weathering
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Summary:The elemental composition of sediments in rivers is the product of physical and chemical erosion of rocks, which is then transported across drainage networks. A corollary is that fluvial sedimentary geochemistry can be used to understand geologic, climatic, and geomorphic processes. Here, we predict elemental compositions of river sediments using drainage networks extracted from digital elevation data and erosional models. The Geochemical Baseline Survey of the Environment was used to quantify substrate (i.e., source region) chemistry. Sedimentary compositions in rivers downstream are predicted by formally integrating eroding substrates with respect to distance downstream. Different erosional models, including the Stream Power model and uniform incision rates, are tested. Predictions are tested using a new suite of compositions obtained from fine grained (
ISSN:2169-9003
2169-9011
DOI:10.1029/2020JF005700