The principle, application, and prospect of using the uranium comminution age to indicate the catchment erosion depth

• Published in: Science China. Earth sciences Vol. 66; no. 7; pp. 1439 - 1449
• Main Authors: Xu, Hongmin, Li, Chao, Duan, Zhifei, Guo, Yulong, Yang, Shouye
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Beijing Science China Press 01.07.2023; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Age; Carbon dioxide; Catchments; Chemical weathering; Climate and human activity; Climate change; Climatic evolution; Comminution; Components; Depth; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Earth surface; Erosion processes; Global climate; Landforms; Landslides; Review; Sediment; Sedimentary environments; Sediments; Soil erosion; Uranium; Watersheds; (; Comminution age; Erosion depth; Catchment scale; U
• ISSN: 1674-7313; 1869-1897
• DOI: 10.1007/s11430-022-1082-3

Catchment erosion not only shapes various landforms of the earth’s surface but also affects the rates of chemical weathering and CO 2 absorption by controlling the exposure of rock fragments, and thus acts as a regulator of the global climate. Therefore, studying the occurrence and controlling factors of catchment erosion can improve our understanding of topographic evolution and long-term climate change. This paper introduces the “comminution age” method based on ( 234 U/ 238 U) of sediment detrital components and its applications to indicate the catchment erosion depth, which is widely applied to different depositional environments. In tectonically stable regions, where there is shallow erosion, the sediment output from the catchment is usually accompanied by a low ( 234 U/ 238 U). On the other hand, where there is deep erosion, the ( 234 U/ 238 U) of the downstream sediments is usually high. In tectonically active regions, deep erosion is common, and the sediment erosion process is subject to rapid material transport, such as landslide-induced sediment displacement. Since the sediment exposure history is short, the ( 234 U/ 238 U) of the detrital components is close to 1, thus reaching “secular equilibrium”. The comminution age method is promising in terms of tracing catchment erosion depths at the orbital scale. Furthermore, this method is also sensitive to the erosion changes caused by rapid climate changes and human activities.