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Geomorphic and cosmogenic nuclide constraints on escarpment evolution in an intraplate setting, Darling Escarpment, Western Australia

The ~900 km long Darling Scarp in Western Australia is one of the most prominent linear topographic features on Earth. Despite the presence of over-steepened reaches in all westerly flowing streams crossing the scarp, and significant seismic activity within 100 km of the scarp, there is no historical seismicity and no reported evidence for Quaternary tectonic displacements on the underlying Darling Fault. Consequently, it is unclear whether the scarp is a rapidly evolving landform responding to recent tectonic and/or climatic forcing or a more slowly evolving landform. In order to quantify late Quaternary rates of erosion and scarp relief processes, we obtained measurements of the cosmic-ray produced nuclide beryllium-10 (10Be) from outcropping bedrock surfaces along the scarp summit and face, in valley floors, and at stream knickpoints. Erosion rates of bedrock outcrops along the scarp summit surface range from 0·5 to 4·0 m Myr-1. These are in the same range as erosion rates of 2·1 to 3·6 m Myr-1 on the scarp face and similar to river incision rates of 2·6 to 11·0 m Myr-1 from valley floor bedrock straths, indicating that the Darling Scarp is a slowly eroding ‘steady state’ landform, without any significant contemporary relief production over the last several 100 kyr and possibly several million years. Knickpoint retreat rates determined from 10Be concentrations at the bases of two knickpoints on small streams incised into the scarp are 36 and 46 m Myr-1. If these erosion rates were sustained over longer timescales, then associated knickpoints may have initiated in the mid-Tertiary to early Neogene, consistent with early-mid Tertiary marginal uplift. Ongoing maintenance of stream disequilibrium longitudinal profiles is consistent with slow, regional base level lowering associated with recently proposed continental-scale tilting, as opposed to differential uplift along discrete faults. Cosmogenic 10Be analysis provides a useful tool for interpreting the palaeoseismic history of intraplate near-fault landforms over 105 to 106 years.

Simple

Identification info

Date (Publication)
2011-03-10T00:00:00
Citation identifier
Geoscience Australia Persistent Identifier/https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/69556

Cited responsible party
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Author

Jakica, S.

1
Author

Quigley, M.C.

2
Author

Sandiford, M.

3
Author

Clark, D.

4
Author

Fifield, K.L.

5
Author

Alimanovic, A.

6
Point of contact
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Point of contact

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

Voice
Point of contact

Clark, D.

Topic category
  • Geoscientific information
Maintenance and update frequency
Unknown
Keywords
  • External Publication

  • Scientific Journal Paper

Theme
  • earthquakes

Theme
  • geomorphology

Keywords
  • AU-WA

Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)
  • Earth Sciences

Keywords
  • Published_Internal

Resource constraints

Title

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence

Alternate title

CC-BY

Edition

4.0

Website

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/

Access constraints
Restricted
Use constraints
License

Resource constraints

Title

Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem

Edition date
2018-11-01T00:00:00
Website

https://www.protectivesecurity.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx

Classification
Unclassified
Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8

Distribution Information

Distributor contact
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Distributor

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

Voice
OnLine resource

Link to article

Link to article

Distribution format
  • html

Resource lineage

Statement

Unknown

Hierarchy level
Non geographic dataset
Other

External Publication

Description

Source data not available.

Metadata constraints

Title

Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem

Edition date
2018-11-01T00:00:00
Website

https://www.protectivesecurity.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx

Classification
Unclassified

Metadata

Metadata identifier
urn:uuid/a05f7892-edfa-7506-e044-00144fdd4fa6

Title

GeoNetwork UUID

Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8
Contact
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Point of contact

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

Voice
Point of contact

Clark, D.

Type of resource

Resource scope
Document
Name

External publication

Alternative metadata reference

Title

Geoscience Australia - short identifier for metadata record with

uuid

Citation identifier
eCatId/69556

Metadata linkage

https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/a05f7892-edfa-7506-e044-00144fdd4fa6

Metadata linkage

https://ecat.ga.gov.au:80/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/a05f7892-edfa-7506-e044-00144fdd4fa6

Date info (Revision)
2018-04-11T01:20:06
Date info (Creation)
2009-09-18T00:00:00

Metadata standard

Title

AU/NZS ISO 19115-1:2014

Metadata standard

Title

ISO 19115-1:2014

Metadata standard

Title

ISO 19115-3

Title

Geoscience Australia Community Metadata Profile of ISO 19115-1:2014

Edition

Version 2.0, September 2018

Citation identifier
https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/122551

 
 

Keywords

earthquakes geomorphology

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