[1] The response of glaciated landscapes to rapid rock uplift, driven by tectonic convergence, is an important, often neglected, aspect of proposed interactions between plate tectonic processes and climate change. Rivers typically respond to more rapid rock uplift in part through increasing channel gradients. In contrast, the ‘‘glacial buzzsaw’’ hypothesis suggests that glaciers can erode as qu...

Negative carbon isotope excursions from a new record of terrestrial organic carbon (dCorg= 2.3x) and from marine carbonate (d13Ccarb= 0.8x) were used to calculate a methane hydrate release of 1137 Gt of carbon over ~1 Myr during the early Aptian (Early Cretaceous). We show how the coincident and sudden near-cessation of subduction along the northern boundaries of the Farallon plate resulted in ...

The steep topography of mountain landscapes arises from interactions among tectonic rock uplift, valley incision and landslide erosion on hillslopes. Hillslopes in rapidly uplifting landscapes are thought to respond to river incision into bedrock by steepening to a maximum stable or ‘threshold’ angle1–3. Landslide erosion rates are predicted to increase nonlinearly as hillslope angles approach ...

[1] Images from satellite interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) reveal uplift of a broad 10 km by 20 km area in the Three Sisters volcanic center of the central Oregon Cascade Range, 130 km south of Mt. St. Helens. The last eruption in the volcanic center occurred 1500 years ago. Multiple satellite images from 1992 through 2000 indicate that most if not all of 100 mm of observed upli...

[1] Vertical crustal motions at 15 sites along the northern Pacific-North America plate boundary are determined using relative sea level changes from tide gauge records. Our analysis is based on monthly mean sea levels, from which barometric pressure and seasonal effects are removed. The records are corrected for common-mode oceanographic variations. These records are statistically examined for...

Understanding diversity patterns along environmental gradients and their underlying mechanisms is a major topic in current biodiversity research. In this study, we investigate for the first time elevational patterns of vascular plant species richness and endemism on a long-isolated continental island (Crete) that has experienced extensive post-isolation mountain uplift. We used all available da...

Our observations show that extreme uplift in southeast Alaska began about 1770 AD, with relative sea level (RSL) change to 5.7 m and current uplift rates to 32 mm/yr. This region experienced widespread glacial melting following the Little Ice Age (LIA), with the collapse of the Glacier Bay Icefield alone equivalent to 8 mm of global sea level rise. Geodynamic modelling links the uplift to post-...

Fission track analysis of apatites from basement rocks of the Wright Valley in southern Victoria Land provides information about the timing. the amount and hence the rate of uplift of the Transantarctic Mountains in this area. Apatite ages increase systematically with elevation, and a pronounced break in the age versus elevation profile has been recognised at about 800 m on Mt. Doody near the m...