Unfortunately this page does not have a mobile or narrow screen view. Please switch to a desktop computer or increase the size of your browser. For tablets try flipping the screen.
Data Publication
Analysis of cosmogenic 10Be concentrations of Siwalik sediments and modern river sands from the north-western Himalaya and the calculated 10Be-derived paleoerosion rates
Mandal, Sanjay Kumar | Scherler, Dirk | Wittmann, Hella
GFZ Data Services
(2021)
These datasets were used to evaluate the main controls on last ~6 million years erosion rate variability of the northwestern Himalaya. The Earth’s climate has been cooling during the last ~15 million years and started fluctuating between cold and warm periods since ~2-3 million years ago. Many researchers think that these long-term climatic changes were accompanied by changes in continental erosion. However, quantifying erosion rates in the geological past is challenging, and previous studies reached contrasting conclusions. In this study, we quantified erosion rates in the north-western Indian Himalaya over the past 6 million years by measuring in situ-produced cosmogenic 10Be in exhumed older foreland basin sediments. The 10Be is produced by cosmic rays in minerals at the Earth's surface, and its abundance indicates erosion rates. Our reconstructed erosion rates show a quasi-cyclic pattern with a periodicity of ~1 million year and a gradual increase towards the present. We suggest that both patterns—cyclicity and gradual increase—are unrelated to climatic changes. Instead, we propose that the growth of the Himalaya by repeatedly scraping off rocks from the Indian plate (basal accretion), resulted in changes of its topography that were accompanied by changes in erosion rates. In this scenario, basal accretion episodically changes rock-uplift patterns, which brings landscapes out of equilibrium and results in quasi-cyclic variations in erosion rates. We used numerical landscape evolution simulations to demonstrate that this hypothesis is physically plausible. Datasets provided here includes summary of the location, depositional age, and stratigraphic position of 41 Siwalik sandstone samples collected from the Haripur section in Himachal Pradesh, India (Dataset S1); 10Be analysis results of Siwalik samples (2021-006_Mandal-et-al_Dataset-S1); sample location and 10Be analysis results of modern river sands from the Yamuna River and its tributaries near the Dehradun Basin (2021-006_Mandal-et-al_Dataset-S2); input parameters for the calculation of paleoerosion rates (2021-006_Mandal-et-al_Dataset-S3); and reconstructed 10Be paleoconcentrations and paleoerosion rates (Dataset S4). Moreover, the data include a compilation of published magnetostratigraphy-derived sediment accumulation rates in the late Cenozoic Himalayan foreland basin (2021-006_Mandal-et-al_Dataset-S5). We also include a movie (2021-006_Mandal-et-al_Movie-S1) that is a complete numerical landscape evolution model run with four consecutive accretion cycles of equal magnitude. For more information (for e.g., sampling method, analytical procedure, and data processing) please refer to the associated data description file and the main article (Mandal et al., 2021).
Keywords
Originally assigned keywords
Corresponding MSL vocabulary keywords
MSL enriched keywords
MSL enriched sub domains i
Source publisher
GFZ Data Services
DOI
10.5880/gfz.3.3.2021.006
Authors
Mandal, Sanjay Kumar
0000-0001-5341-6788
Department of Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata, 741246 West Bengal, India; Centre for Climate and Environmental Studies, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata, 741246 West Bengal, India;
Scherler, Dirk
0000-0003-3911-2803
GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Potsdam, Germany; Institute of Geological Sciences, Freie Universität Berlin. Berlin, Germany;
Wittmann, Hella
0000-0002-1252-7059
GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Potsdam, Germany;
Contributers
HELGES – Helmholtz-Laboratory for the Geochemistry of the Earth Surface (GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Germany)
HostingInstitution
GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Potsdam, Germany;
Mandal, Sanjay Kumar
ContactPerson
Department of Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata, 741246 West Bengal, India;
References
Mandal, S. K., Scherler, D., & Wittmann, H. (2021). Tectonic Accretion Controls Erosional Cyclicity in the Himalaya. AGU Advances, 2(3). Portico. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021av000487
10.1029/2021AV000487
IsSupplementTo
Appel, E., Rösler, W., & Corvinus, G. (1991). Magnetostratigraphy of the Miocene-Pleistocene Surai Khola Siwaliks in West Nepal. Geophysical Journal International, 105(1), 191–198. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-246x.1991.tb03455.x
10.1111/j.1365-246X.1991.tb03455.x
Cites
Behrensmeyer, A. K., Quade, J., Cerling, T. E., Kappelman, J., Khan, I. A., Copeland, P., Roe, L., Hicks, J., Stubblefield, P., Willis, B. J., & Latorre, C. (2007). The structure and rate of late Miocene expansion of C4 plants: Evidence from lateral variation in stable isotopes in paleosols of the Siwalik Group, northern Pakistan. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 119(11–12), 1486–1505. https://doi.org/10.1130/b26064.1
10.1130/B26064.1
Cites
Cites
Chirouze, F., Dupont-Nivet, G., Huyghe, P., Beek, P. van der, Chakraborti, T., Bernet, M., & Erens, V. (2012). Magnetostratigraphy of the Neogene Siwalik Group in the far eastern Himalaya: Kameng section, Arunachal Pradesh, India. Journal of Asian Earth Sciences, 44, 117–135. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jseaes.2011.05.016
10.1016/j.jseaes.2011.05.016
Cites
Coutand, I., Barrier, L., Govin, G., Grujic, D., Hoorn, C., Dupont-Nivet, G., & Najman, Y. (2016). Late Miocene-Pleistocene evolution of India-Eurasia convergence partitioning between the Bhutan Himalaya and the Shillong Plateau: New evidences from foreland basin deposits along the Dungsam Chu section, eastern Bhutan. Tectonics, 35(12), 2963–2994. Portico. https://doi.org/10.1002/2016tc004258
10.1002/2016tc004258
Cites
Gautam, P., & Appel, E. (1994). Magnetic-Polarity Stratigraphy of Siwalik Group Sediments of Tinau Khola Section In West Central Nepal, Revisited. Geophysical Journal International, 117(1), 223–234. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-246x.1994.tb03314.x
10.1111/j.1365-246x.1994.tb03314.x
Cites
Gautam, P., & Fujiwara, Y. (2000). Magnetic polarity stratigraphy of Siwalik Group sediments of Karnali River section in western Nepal. Geophysical Journal International, 142(3), 812–824. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-246x.2000.00185.x
10.1046/j.1365-246x.2000.00185.x
Cites
Harrison, T. M., Copeland, P., Hall, S. A., Quade, jay, Burner, S., Ojha, T. P., & Kidd, W. S. F. (1993). Isotopic Preservation of Himalayan/Tibetan Uplift, Denudation, and Climatic Histories of Two Molasse Deposits. The Journal of Geology, 101(2), 157–175. https://doi.org/10.1086/648214
10.1086/648214
Cites
Cites
Ojha, T. P., Butler, R. F., DeCelles, P. G., & Quade, J. (2009). Magnetic polarity stratigraphy of the Neogene foreland basin deposits of Nepal. Basin Research, 21(1), 61–90. Portico. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2117.2008.00374.x
10.1111/j.1365-2117.2008.00374.x
Cites
Rösler, W., Metzler, W., & Appel, E. (1997). Neogene magnetic polarity stratigraphy of some fluviatile Siwalik sections, Nepal. Geophysical Journal International, 130(1), 89–111. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-246x.1997.tb00990.x
10.1111/j.1365-246x.1997.tb00990.x
Cites
Cites
Venkateshwarlu, M. (2015). Magnetic polarity stratigraphy of the Siwalik sequence in Nurpur area, NW Himalaya, India. Journal of Earth System Science, 124(6), 1177–1185. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-015-0609-2
10.1007/s12040-015-0609-2
Cites
Contact
Mandal, Sanjay Kumar
Department of Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata, 741246 West Bengal, India;
Citiation
Mandal, S. K., Scherler, D., & Wittmann, H. (2021). Analysis of cosmogenic 10Be concentrations of Siwalik sediments and modern river sands from the north-western Himalaya and the calculated 10Be-derived paleoerosion rates [Data set]. GFZ Data Services. https://doi.org/10.5880/GFZ.3.3.2021.006
Geo location(s)
Study area in Himachal Pradesh