Controls on Quaternary Sediment Erosion and Provenance in the Himalayan Rain Shadow, Zanskar River, Northwest India

Abstract:

The Asian Summer Monsoon exerts strong control over erosion in the frontal Himalaya and possibly farther onto the periphery of the Tibetan Plateau in the Himalayan rain shadow. This study evaluates the Zanskar River, a large rain shadow tributary to the Indus River system, to establish how monsoonal precipitation controls erosion patterns, sediment yield, and sediment composition in the Himalayan rain shadow.

Bulk sediment petrography and U-Pb detrital zircon ages demonstrate that Zanskar River sands are overwhelmingly dominated by 600–850 Ma zircon, which is consistent with material eroding from Greater Himalayan lithologies. In particular, modern sediment production appears to be heavily concentrated in the wettest and most glaciated subcatchment. River terrace sands indicate that no significant change in the area of sediment production and basin-wide provenance signal has occurred since ~11.5 ka, despite changes in monsoon strength. Variability in subcatchment provenance signals, however, do shift locally with enhanced precipitation around the time of the Monsoon Maximum (10–8 ka). Detrital apatite fission track ages suggest rates of erosion typical for the northwest Indian Himalaya for the last 6.4 M.y. in Zanskar, in spite of the changing monsoonal climate. Together these data indicate most sediment in the Zanskar River is freshly-eroded and transmitted immediately downstream into the Indus River with only modest buffering in terraces.