Response of modern fluvial sediments to regional tectonic activity along
the Min River in eastern Tibet
Abstract
Key Points: • Three areas of tectonic activity are identified by
analysis of the fluvial sediments from the Min River in eastern Tibet. •
The dominance of fluvial silts, low relief and low slope-angles indicate
weak activity of the Minjiang fault. • Stepwise increases in sands,
relief, and slope-angle reveal increased tecton-ism in the
Diexi-Wenchuan-Dujiangyan segments. Abstract The deposition of fluvial
sediments in the tectonically active areas is mainly controlled by
climate change and tectonic activity, meaning that fluvial sediments can
provide a valuable record of regional climatic and tectonic signals. In
this study, a detailed analysis was conducted on the grain-size of
modern fluvial sediments from the upper Min River in eastern Tibet, and
these data were combined with regional information about the vegetation,
hydrology and geomorphology. The results indicate that modern regional
tectonic activity in the study area can be divided into three segments.
The fluvial sediments in Minjiangyuan-Diexi segment are dominated by
fine silts (<63 ï¿¿m: 70.2%), showing low runoff and rainfall
conditions and revealing a windblown origin influenced by climate
change. This observation is consistent with the small hillslope angle
and low relief in this segment, indicating weak activity of Minjiang
fault. The coarse-grained fraction (>250 ï¿¿m) of fluvial
sediments in Diexi-Wenchuan-Dujiangyan segments increases stepwise
(A:6.2%, B:19.4%, C:33.8%) with a stable hydrological conditions,
which corresponds well to the increasing trend in the regional relief
and the steepness of hillslope angles. These observations indicate the
phased enhancement of regional tectonic activity for Maoxian-Wenchuan
fault. The fluvial sediments in Dujiangyan-Sichuan basin segment show
good sorting and rounding, which is well correlated with significant
increases in rainfall and runoff. There is also almost no evidence of
tectonic activity in this segment. This study first develops an
important research approach for revealing regional tectonic activity
through fluvial sediment analysis in tectonically active regions. Plain
Language Summary In tectonically active areas, intense tectonic activity
tends to create steep ge-omorphology, and deeply affect erosion and
sedimentation of river systems. Hence, whether fluvial sediments
document changes of regional tectonic activity 1 deserve detailed
investigation. In this study, the fluvial sediment of the Min River in
the eastern Tibetan Plateau is taken as the research object. Based on
grain size analysis of the Min River sediments, we reveal the close
correlation between grain size variation and tectonic activity, under
the comprehensive comparison of regional topography and geomorphology
(slope, height difference) and hydrological conditions. We find that the
fine-grained fluvial sediments from the Minjiangyuan to Diexi segment
correspond to the weak fault activity of the Minjiang Fault, while the
significant increase of coarse-grained composition from Diexi to
Dujiangyan segment correspond to the enhancement of fault activity of
the Maoxian-Wenchuan fault. This is supported by the greater slope
angles and mountain relief from Diexi to Dujiangyan. Novelty of the
research methods and reliability of results in this study provide a good
reference for revealing regional tectonic activity through fluvial
sediments in tectonically active areas.