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Since the impact ∼50,000 yr ago, surface runoff has entrained and transported sediment from the walls to the floor of Meteor Crater (Arizona, USA). Previous work interpreted this erosion and deposition to be due to predominantly fluvial (i.e., dilute water transport) processes. However, light detection and ranging (LiDAR)-derived topographic data and field observations indicate that debris flows dominated, which were likely generated by runoff that entrained the talus that borders bedrock cliffs high on the crater walls. The low gradient of the crater floor caused debris flows to stop, leaving lobate deposits, while fluvial processes delivered sediment toward the center of the crater. Cosmogenic radionuclide dating of levee deposits suggests that debris-flow activity ceased in the late Pleistocene, synchronous with regional drying. Assuming a rock-to-water ratio of 0.3 at the time of transport by mass flows, it would have taken ∼2 × 106 m3 of water to transport the estimated ∼6.8 × 106 m3 of debris-flow deposits found at the surface of the crater floor. This extensive erosion would require ∼6 m of total runoff over the 0.35 km2 upslope source area of the crater, or ∼18 mm of runoff per debris-flow event. Much more runoff did occur, as evidenced by crater lake deposits, Holocene fluvial activity (which produced little erosion), and contemporary rainfall rates. Rarely on Earth is the total amount of water that creates and runs through a landscape estimated, yet such calculations are commonly done on Mars. Our analysis suggests that erosional and depositional landforms may record only a small fraction of the total runoff. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amplified warming of high latitudes and rapid thaw of frozen ground threaten permafrost carbon stocks. The presence of permafrost modulates water infiltration and flow, as well as sediment transport, on soil-mantled slopes, influencing the balance of advective fluvial processes to diffusive processes on hillslopes in ways that are different from temperate settings. These processes that shape permafrost landscapes also impact the carbon stored on soil-mantled hillslopes via temperature, saturation, and slope stability such that carbon stocks and landscape morphometry should be closely linked. We studied >69,000 headwater basins between 25° and 90 °N to determine whether the thermal state of the soil sets the balance between hillslope (diffusive) and fluvial (advective) erosion processes, as evidenced by the density of the channel networks (i.e., drainage density) and the proportion of convex to concave topography (hillslopes and river valleys, respectively). Watersheds within permafrost regions have lower drainage densities than regions without permafrost, regardless of watershed glacial history, mean annual precipitation, and relief. We find evidence that advective fluvial processes are inhibited in permafrost landscapes compared to their temperate counterparts. Frozen soils likely inhibit channel development, and we predict that climate warming will lower incision thresholds to promote growth of the channel network in permafrost landscapes. By demonstrating how the balance of advective versus diffusive processes might shift with future warming, we gain insight into the mechanisms that shift these landscapes from sequestering to exporting carbon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alluvial fans are found across a range of climates and are built from a combination of fluvial and debris flow processes. Correct identification of process is critical to reconstructing the climate and water histories of alluvial fans on Earth and Mars. Theory and data from subaerial Earth fans are often used to estimate paleoflow discharges and sediment fluxes for martian fans; however, most terrestrial work has been conducted on fans that are in hot, dry climates with runoff sourced from rainfall. This differs from the prevailing interpretation that martian fans were sourced from snowmelt under warming periglacial conditions. To characterize processes and rates of periglacial fan formation, we conducted a field-based study of the Black Mountain alluvial fan in the Aklavik Range, Canada. We observed active fluvial bedload transport as well as several small debris flows that had initiated from ice-filled gullies. Following a runoff event of ~0.005 mm/hr to ~0.2 mm/hr across the fan, we estimated sediment fluxes of ~0.04 m3/hr. Under bankfull conditions, we estimated runoff rates between ~0.01 mm/hr to ~14 mm/hr and corresponding sediment fluxes of ~0.3 m3/hr to ~550 m3/hr. This suggests that moderate flow events, well below the maximum runoff production rates suggested for Mars, are capable of entraining and transporting appreciable amounts of sediment by fluvial processes. However, sedimentological and geomorphological observations suggest that ~67% of the fan was deposited fluvially; the remainder was deposited by mass flows. Our results emphasize the need to take care in interpreting martian sedimentary processes and climate from fan surface morphology alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Earth's topography and climate result from the competition between uplift and erosion, but it has been debated whether rivers or glaciers are more effective erosional agents. We present a global compilation of fluvial and glacial erosion rates alongside simple numerical experiments, which show that the "Sadler effect," wherein geological rates show an inverse relationship with measurement timescale, comprises three distinct effects: a measurement thickness bias, a bias of erosion and redeposition, and a bias introduced by not observing quiescent intervals. Furthermore, we find that, globally, average glacial erosion rates exceed fluvial erosion rates through time by an order of magnitude, and that this difference cannot be explained by Sadlerian biases or by variations in hillslope, precipitation, or latitude. These findings support observations of increased erosion rates following Cenozoic cooling and glaciation, and reveal the importance of glacial erosion over millennial to orogenic timescales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]