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Coupling of rock uplift and river incision in the Namche Barwa–Gyala Peri massif, Tibet

Noah J. Finnegan^,,1, Bernard Hallet¹, David R. Montgomery¹, Peter K. Zeitler², John O. Stone³, Alison M. Anders⁴ and Liu Yuping⁵

¹ Department of Earth and Space Sciences and Quaternary Research Center, University of Washington, P.O. Box 351310, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA
² Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lehigh University, 31 Williams Drive, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania 18015, USA
³ Department of Earth and Space Sciences and Quaternary Research Center, University of Washington, P.O. Box 351310, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA
⁴ Department of Geology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 245 Natural History Building, 1301 West Green Street, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA
⁵ Chengdu Institute of Geology and Mineral Resources, 2 Beisanduan, Yihuanlu, Chengdu 610081, Sichuan Province, China

View larger version (69K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Figure 1. (A) Geologic and tectonic map of the eastern syntaxis (Burg et al., 1997, 1998; Ding et al., 2001; Kidd et al., 2006). (B) LANDSAT-7 Satellite overview of the map region in (A), highlighting major rivers. Arrows indicate river flow directions.

View larger version (57K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Figure 2. Spatial distribution of zircon (U-Th)/He ages in the vicinity of the Namche Barwa–Gyala Peri massif. Stars denote the locations of Namche Barwa and Gyala Peri.

View larger version (56K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Figure 3. Spatial distribution of biotite 40Ar/39Ar ages in the vicinity of the Namche Barwa–Gyala Peri massif. Stars denote the locations of Namche Barwa and Gyala Peri.

View larger version (39K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Figure 4. (A) Patterns in topographic relief in the vicinity of the Namche Barwa–Gyala Peri massif. Areas with no data coverage are those with relief <2300 m. Gray stars denote the locations of sediment samples taken for 10Be analysis. Black stars show the locations of Namche Barwa and Gyala Peri. (B) 10Be basin-averaged erosion rate vs. mean topographic relief for sampled catchments.

View larger version (53K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Figure 5. Patterns in mean annual precipitation in the vicinity of the Namche Barwa–Gyala Peri massif. Areas with no data coverage are those with <1 m of precipitation annually. Stars denote the locations of Namche Barwa and Gyala Peri.

View larger version (56K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Figure 6. Patterns in mean annual river power in the vicinity of the Namche Barwa–Gyala Peri massif. Areas with no data coverage were not included in the analysis. Stars denote the locations of Namche Barwa and Gyala Peri.

View larger version (57K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Figure 7. Valley Bottom Sediment storage in the vicinity of the Namche Barwa–Gyala Peri massif, a proxy for low excess transport-capacity channels. The locations of the reaches shown in Figures 8 and 9 are indicated in the figure. Stars denote the locations of Namche Barwa and Gyala Peri. Qs/Qt refers to the ratio of bed load sediment supply to bed load sediment transport capacity.

View larger version (49K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Figure 8. Paired LANDSAT images, showing the Yiggong Tsangpo before (September 23, 1999) and after (November 15, 2001) a landslide, which occurred in 2000. Arrows denote the flow directions of major rivers.

View larger version (82K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Figure 9. Photograph of the Yarlung Tsangpo–Brahmaputra within the Yarlung Tsangpo gorge, showing numerous large bedrock landslide scars and minimal sediment storage in the channel. The photograph was generously provided by Allan Ellard, a member of the 2002 kayaking expedition in the Yarlung Tsangpo gorge.

View larger version (58K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Figure 10. Superimposed patterns in topographic relief, sediment deposition, river power, zircon ages, and biotite ages. Stars denote the locations of Namche Barwa and Gyala Peri.

View larger version (51K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Figure 11. (A) Perspective satellite view of the study area, showing the reach of the Yarlung Tsangpo–Brahmaputra (A–A') within the study area. (B) Longitudinal profile of zircon (U-Th)/He ages, biotite 40Ar/39Ar ages, and river power along the Yarlung Tsangpo–Brahmaputra. Uncertainty in river power is shown with line thickness, whereas error bars for mineral-cooling age data are smaller than the data symbols. (C) River elevation, topographic relief, and sediment storage along the Yarlung Tsangpo–Brahmaputra.

View larger version (15K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Figure 12. Profiles of elevation, precipitation, and zircon (U-Th)/He ages along the Yarlung Tsangpo–Brahmaputra.