Plio-Quaternary landscape evolution in the uplifted Ardennes: New insights from 26Al/10Be data from cave-deposited alluvium (Meuse catchment, E. Belgium)
landscape evolution; cave-deposited alluvium; 26Al/10Be burial dating; river incision
Abstract :
[en] Despite a wealth of recent studies dealing with the evolution of the drainage network in the uplifted Ardennes massif (E. Belgium), especially from the Middle Pleistocene onwards, the Ardennian landscape evolution and long-term incision rates in the Meuse catchment remain poorly documented over the whole Plio-Quaternary. Alluvium-filled multilevel cave systems represent a relevant setting to unravel the Late Cenozoic history of regional river incision.Wepresent here a dataset of 26Al/10Be concentration data obtained fromfifteen pebble samples washed into the Chawresse system, one of the largestmulti-level cave systems of Belgium,which developed in Devonian limestones of the lower Ourthe Valley, the main Ardennian tributary of the Meuse. The sample collection spans an elevation difference higher than 120mand their depleted 26Al/10Be ratios yield burial ages ranging from ~0.25 to 3.28 Ma. After critical assessment of our dataset for intra-karstic reworking issues, the most striking outcome of the obtained burial ages is the acceleration by a factor five of the incision rates (from ~30 to ~150 m/Ma) during the first half of the Middle Pleistocene. Integrating this incision peak and our pre-burial denudation rates, we then revisit the existing framework of Plio-Quaternary denudation and river incision in the Ardennian Meuse catchment. Whilst our 26Al/10Be concentration data shed new light on the temporal and
spatial variability of the local river and hillslope system response to coupled tectonic and climatic forcings, it simultaneously highlights sampling issues and the need for further chronological data.
Disciplines :
Earth sciences & physical geography
Author, co-author :
Rixhon, Gilles
Braucher, Régis
Bourlès, Didier
Peeters, Alexandre ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de géographie > Géomorphologie et Géologie du Quaternaire
Demoulin, Alain ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de géographie > Unité de géographie physique et quaternaire (UGPQ)
Leanni, Laetitia
ASTER Team
Language :
English
Title :
Plio-Quaternary landscape evolution in the uplifted Ardennes: New insights from 26Al/10Be data from cave-deposited alluvium (Meuse catchment, E. Belgium)
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