Drainage area, bedrock fracture spacing, and weathering controls on
landscape-scale patterns in surface sediment grain size
Abstract
Sediment grain size links sediment production, weathering, and fining
from fractured bedrock on hillslopes to river incision and landscape
relief. Yet, models of sediment grain size delivery to rivers remain
unconstrained due to a scarcity of field data. We analyzed how bedrock
fracture spacing and hillslope weathering influence landscape-scale
patterns in surface sediment grain size across gradients of erosion rate
and hillslope bedrock exposure in the San Gabriel Mountains (SGM) and
northern San Jacinto Mountains (NSJM) of California, USA. Using
ground-based structure-from-motion photogrammetry models of 50 bedrock
cliffs, we showed that fracture density is ~5× higher in
the SGM than the NSJM. 274 point count surveys of surface sediment grain
size measured in the field and from imagery show a drainage area control
on sediment grain size, with systematic downslope coarsening on
hillslopes and in headwater colluvial channels transitioning to
downstream fining in fluvial channels. In contrast to prior work and
predictions from a hillslope weathering model, grain size does not
increase smoothly with increasing erosion rate. For soil-mantled
landscapes, sediment grain size increases with increasing erosion rates;
however, once bare bedrock emerges on hillslopes, sediment grain size in
both the NSJM and SGM becomes insensitive to further increases in
erosion rate and hillslope bedrock exposure, and instead reflects
fracture spacing contrasts between the NSJM and SGM. We interpret this
threshold behavior to emerge in steep landscapes due to efficient
delivery of coarse sediment from bedrock hillslopes to channels and the
relative immobility of coarse sediment in fluvial channels.