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Pliocene–Pleistocene incision of the Green River, Kentucky, determined from radioactive decay of cosmogenic ²⁶Al and ¹⁰Be in Mammoth Cave sediments

¹ Purdue Rare Isotope Measurement Laboratory, Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907-1397, USA
² Department of Earth Sciences, State University of New York, College at Oneonta, Oneonta, New York 13820-4015, USA

Cosmogenic ²⁶Al and ¹⁰Be in sediments washed into Mammoth Cave, Kentucky, record the history of 3.5 m.y. of water-table position, governed by incision and aggradation of the Green River, a tributary of the Ohio River. Upper levels of the cave formed during a period of slow river incision and were later filled with sediment due to river aggradation at 2.3–2.4 Ma. A brief surge of river incision ca. 2 Ma was followed by river stability and cave-passage formation at a lower level. Rapid incision through 15 m of bedrock ca. 1.5 Ma was prompted by repositioning of the Ohio River to its present course along an ice-sheet margin. Renewed incision ca. 1.2 Ma and aggradation at 0.7–0.8 Ma correlate with major ice advances in the Ohio River basin. Measurements of ²⁶Al and ¹⁰Be also indicate that sandstone-capped uplands have maintained slow erosion rates of 2–7 m/m.y. for the past 3.5 m.y., despite accelerated Pleistocene river incision rates of 30 m/m.y.

Key Words: cosmogenic elements • geochronology • karst • landscape evolution • Mammoth Cave • Ohio River basin

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