Minimal climatic control on erosion rates in the Sierra Nevada, California

Citation
Cs. Riebe et al., Minimal climatic control on erosion rates in the Sierra Nevada, California, GEOLOGY, 29(5), 2001, pp. 447-450
Citations number
35
Language
INGLESE
art.tipo
Article
Categorie Soggetti
Earth Sciences
Journal title
GEOLOGY
ISSN journal
0091-7613 → ACNP
Volume
29
Issue
5
Year of publication
2001
Pages
447 - 450
Database
ISI
SICI code
0091-7613(200105)29:5<447:MCCOER>2.0.ZU;2-G
Abstract
Climate is widely thought to regulate erosion rates, but the relationships among precipitation, temperature, and erosion rate have remained speculativ e, because long-term erosion rates have been difficult to measure. We used cosmogenic nuclides to measure long-term erosion rates at climatically dive rse sites in the Sierra Nevada, California, spanning 20-180 cm/yr in annual precipitation and;4-15 degreesC in mean annual temperature. Average erosio n rates vary by only 2.5 fold across these sites and are not correlated wit h climate, indicating that climate only weakly regulates nonglacial erosion rates in mountainous granitic terrain.