Monsoon and earthquake controls on sediment flux in an arid bedrock landscape, Zanskar, India

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Oliver Korup
• Subject Area: Palaeontology
• Term: from 2009 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 133876762

Quantifying rates of erosion and sediment flux has a long tradition in tectonically active mountain belts such as the Himalaya. Comparably little is known about the role of intermittent sediment storage and its implications for landscape evolution. The proposed project addresses this shortcoming, and aims to investigate the late Quaternary intramontane sedimentary record of the NW Himalayan humid-arid transition in the Zanskar region, India. Specifically, I intend to resolve the causes that led to the formation and incision of large valley fills in catchments otherwise dissected by steep bedrock rivers. A strengthened early Holocene monsoon circulation and large prehistoric earthquakes are among the likely mechanisms to explain the rapid aggradation of valley floors that significantly delay fluvial bedrock incision, reduce local valley relief, buffer hillslope sediment delivery to river channels, and generally contribute to slowing down landscape response to tectonic uplift. Study methods will combine GIS and remote sensing analyses, radiometric age dating, sedimentological and morphometric field techniques, and numerical process modelling in order to quantify to first order the effects of large valley fills on late Quaternary landscape dynamics in the NW Himalaya.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants