Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-28-2019
Abstract
Rates of northern Alaska Range thrust system deformation are poorly constrained. Shortening at the system's west end is focused on the Kantishna Hills anticline. Where the McKinley River cuts across the anticline, the landscape records both Late Pleistocene deformation and climatic change. New optically stimulated luminescence and cosmogenic 10Be depth profile dates of three McKinley River terrace levels (~22, ~18, and ~14–9 ka) match independently determined ages of local glacial maxima, consistent with climate-driven terrace formation. Terrace ages quantify rates of differential bedrock incision, uplift, and shortening based on fault depth inferred from microseismicity. Differential rock uplift and incision (≤1.4 m/kyr) drive significant channel width narrowing in response to ongoing folding at a shortening rate of ~1.2 m/kyr. Our results constrain northern Alaska Range thrust system deformation rates, and elucidate superimposed landscape responses to Late Pleistocene climate change and active folding with broad geomorphic implications.
Rights Information
©2019. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.
Recommended Citation
Bender, A. M., Lease, R. O., Haeussler, P. J., Rittenour, T., Corbett, L. B., Bierman, P. R., & Caffee, M. W. (2019). Pace and process of active folding and fluvial incision across the Kantishna Hills anticline, central Alaska. Geophysical Research Letters, 46, 3235– 3244. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL081509
DOI
10.1029/2018GL081509
Rights Statement
