Imperial College London
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DrRebeccaBell

Faculty of Engineering, Department of Earth Science & Engineering

Reader in Tectonics
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 0903rebecca.bell

 
 
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Location

 

2.37aRoyal School of MinesSouth Kensington Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Watkins:2018:10.1130/B31953.1,
author = {Watkins, S and Whittaker, A and Bell, RE and McNeill, L and Gawthorpe, R and Brooke, S and Nixon, C},
doi = {10.1130/B31953.1},
journal = {Geological Society of America Bulletin},
pages = {372--388},
title = {Are landscapes buffered to high frequency climate change? A comparison of sediment fluxes and depositional volumes in the Corinth Rift, central Greece, over the past 130 kyrs},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/B31953.1},
volume = {131},
year = {2018}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Sediment supply is a fundamental control on the stratigraphic record. However, a key question is the extent to which climate affects sediment fluxes in time and space. To address this question, estimates of sediment fluxes can be compared with measured sediment volumes within a closed basin with well-constrained tectonic boundary conditions and well-documented climate variability. The Corinth rift, central Greece, is one of the most actively extending basins on Earth, with modern day GPS extension rates of up to 15 mm/yr. The Gulf of Corinth forms a closed system and since ~600 ka the gulf has fluctuated between being marine and a lake. We have estimated suspended sediment fluxes for rivers draining into the Gulf of Corinth using the empirically-derived BQART method over the last interglacial-glacial-interglacial cycle (0-130 kyrs). Modern temperature and precipitation datasets, LGM reconstructions and palaeo climate proxy insights were used to constrain model inputs. Simultaneously, we exploited high-resolution 2D seismic surveys to interpret three seismic units from 130 ka to present and we used this data to derive an independent time series of basin sedimentary volumes to compare with our sediment input flux estimates. Our results predict total Holocene sediment fluxes into the Gulf of Corinth of between 19.2 km3 and 23.4 km3 with a preferred estimate of 21.3 km3. This value is a factor of 1.6 less than the measured Holocene sediment volume in the central depocentres, even without taking lithological factors into account, suggesting that the BQART method provides plausible estimates. Sediment fluxes vary spatially around the Gulf, and we use them to derive minimum catchment-averaged denudation rates of 0.18 to 0.55 mm/yr. Significantly, our time series of basin sedimentary volumes demonstrate a clear reduction in sediment accumulation rates during the last glacial period compared to the current interglacial. This implies that Holocene sediment fluxes must have in
AU  - Watkins,S
AU  - Whittaker,A
AU  - Bell,RE
AU  - McNeill,L
AU  - Gawthorpe,R
AU  - Brooke,S
AU  - Nixon,C
DO  - 10.1130/B31953.1
EP  - 388
PY  - 2018///
SN  - 0016-7606
SP  - 372
TI  - Are landscapes buffered to high frequency climate change? A comparison of sediment fluxes and depositional volumes in the Corinth Rift, central Greece, over the past 130 kyrs
T2  - Geological Society of America Bulletin
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/B31953.1
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/61501
VL  - 131
ER  -
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