Numerical Modeling of Weathering, Erosion, Sedimentation, and Uplift in a Triple Junction Divergent Margin

Abstract

AbstractThe majority of numerical models of landscape evolution in divergent margins are focused on the simulation of margins with simplified lithological control on landscape erosion. However, this approach is insufficient to study the evolution of margins where chemical weathering is an important element increasing rock resistance to physical erosion. One example of this margin is the Borborema Province, northeastern Brazil, where postrift marine sediments are now preserved at elevations ∼700–800 m in up to 1‐km‐high plateaus capped by duricrust layers. The landscape evolution of these uplifted sedimentary basins still eludes explanation. Here we use numerical models that couple weathering, erosion, sedimentation, sea level changes, flexural isostasy, and thermal effects due to lithospheric stretching to simulate the tectonosedimentary evolution of the Borborema Province since the onset of continental stretching during the Lower Cretaceous. These numerical experiments reveal that nearly 70% of the postrift regional uplift observed in the Borborema Province can be explained by differential denudation of the continent and flexural rebound of the lithosphere. The remaining ∼250 m of uplift can be explained by thermal uplift induced by partial erosion of the base of the continental lithosphere under the Borborema Province due to edge‐driven convection, in accordance with the anomalously thin continental lithosphere observed under the Borborema Province. Additionally, the numerical results can explain the regional pattern of fission track ages by the combined effect of differential denudation and flexural rebound in this geometrically complex margin.