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Late Cenozoic climate change paces landscape adjustments to Yukon River capture

Nature Geoscience volume 13, pages 571–575 (2020)Cite this article

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Abstract

Late Cenozoic cooling and changes in glacial–interglacial cycle tempo are thought to increase global rates of erosion starting ~3 million years ago (Ma). Bedrock rivers set rates and patterns of erosion in most landscapes, but constraints on river response to late Cenozoic climate change remain elusive. Here, we determine cosmogenic isotope and luminescence ages of well-preserved bedrock terraces along the Fortymile River (Yukon River basin) to reconstruct an ~5 Myr history of fluvial adjustment to late Cenozoic climate and Yukon River headwater capture at 2.6 Ma. Post-capture Yukon River downcutting lowered the Fortymile River outlet, forcing subsequent bedrock incision throughout the Fortymile basin in two pulses, from 2.4 to 1.8 Ma and at ~1 Ma. These pulses of incision disrupted longer intervals of slow river channel sedimentation under near-consistent climate forcing from 4.8 to 2.4 Ma and from 1.8 to ~1 Ma. The Fortymile River delivers sediment to the Bering Sea, where provenance and accumulation rate changes since 4.3 Ma match observed variations in incision. Our results link alluviation and incision to late Cenozoic climate steadiness and change, respectively, and support the hypothesis that climate-forced changes in precipitation and runoff fundamentally control the pace of river incision and landscape erosion.

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Fig. 1: Fortymile River setting and cosmogenic results.
Fig. 2: Fortymile River profiles of channel and terrace elevation, erosion rate and normalized channel steepness.
Fig. 3: Late Cenozoic variations in climate, Bering Sea sedimentation and Fortymile River incision.

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Data availability

The cosmogenic and luminescence data that support the findings of this study are available in the supplementary materials and through the US Geological Survey Alaska Science Center Science Portal with the identifier https://doi.org/10.5066/P9XVMTAK. The IfSAR-based Alaska digital elevation models and the National Elevation Dataset digital elevation model of Yukon, Canada that support the findings of this study are available by searching https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov.

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Acknowledgements

We thank W. H. Craddock and C. Bacon for reviews; M. L. Miller and J. Slate for editorial support; J. V. Jones for US Geological Survey project support; Vertical Solutions Helicopters for field support; and A. Neely and L. Williamson for lab assistance. Any use of trade, firm or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the US Government. Funding was provided by the USGS Mineral Resources Program, and by the National Science Foundation under grant number EAR-1735676 to P.R.B. and grant number EAR-0919759 to M.W.C.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. US Geological Survey, Alaska Science Center, Anchorage, AK, USA

    Adrian M. Bender & Richard O. Lease

  2. Department of Geology, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, USA

    Lee B. Corbett & Paul R. Bierman

  3. Department of Physics and Astronomy and Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IL, USA

    Marc W. Caffee

  4. Department of Geosciences and USU Luminescence Lab, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA

    Tammy M. Rittenour

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Contributions

A.M.B. and R.O.L. conceptualized the research and conducted field investigations; A.M.B., L.B.C., P.R.B., M.W.C. and T.M.R. conducted laboratory investigations; A.M.B., L.B.C. and T.M.R. curated and formally analysed the data; R.O.L. and P.R.B. acquired funding and resources; A.M.B. wrote the paper and developed figures; all authors contributed to editing and revision.

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Correspondence to Adrian M. Bender.

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Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figs. 1–12.

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Cosmogenic and luminescence data that support the research.

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Bender, A.M., Lease, R.O., Corbett, L.B. et al. Late Cenozoic climate change paces landscape adjustments to Yukon River capture. Nat. Geosci. 13, 571–575 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-020-0611-4

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