Regional response of alluvial fans to the Pleistocene-Holocene climatic transition, Mojave Desert, California

Abstract

Alluvial fan deposits along the Providence Mountains piedmont in the eastern Mojave Desert that (1) are derived from diverse rock types, (2) are dated with luminescence techniques and soil-stratigraphic correlations to other relatively well dated fan, eolian, and lacustrine deposits, and (3) have some of the highest peaks in the Mojave Desert, provide a unique opportunity to study the influence of Pleistocene-Holocene climatic transition on regional fan deposition across diverse geomorphic settings. Geomorphic and age relations among alluvial and eolian units along the Providence Mountains and Soda Mountains piedmonts indicate that most of the late Quaternary eolian and alluvial fan units were deposited during similar time intervals and represent region-wide changes in geomorphic factors controlling sediment supply, storage, and transport. Deposition of alluvial fans in the desert southwestern United States during the latest Pleistocene has been largely attributed to (1) a more humid climate and greater channel discharge and (2) time-transgressive changes in climate and an increase in sediment yield. Stratigraphic and age relations among depositional units demonstrate that a regional period of major alluvial fan deposition occurred between ca. 9.4 and 14 ka, corresponding with the timing of the Pleistocene-Holocene climatic transition. This age range indicates that deposition of these fans is not simply a result of greater effective moisture and channel discharge during the last glacial maximum. Increases in sediment yield during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition have been largely attributed to a timetransgressive decrease in vegetative cover with an increase in hillslope erosion. Geomorphic relations along the Providence Mountains, however, suggest that that changes in vegetation cover during the Pleistocene-Holocene climatic transition may have had a limited impact on hillslope instability and sediment yield because of (1) the inherently high infiltration capacity of coarse-textured soils and colluvium, (2) possible strong spatial variations in soil cover across hillslopes, and (3) modern vegetation cover appears to provide enough stability for the buildup of soils and colluvium. An increase in sediment yield may instead be largely due to an increase in extreme storm events, possibly an increase in tropical cyclones. Extreme storms would provide the rainfall intensity and duration to mobilize permeable sediments from mountain catchments and into distal fan areas.