Climatic and Tectonic Controls on Alluvial Fan Evolution: The Lost River Range, Idaho

In the northern Basin &Range, alluvial fans developed along the Lost River range-front consist of several distinct inset fan segments with concave-up radial profiles. Multiple large radius (>5 km), shallow (2- 3°), alluvial fans extend across and beyond the active, ~140-km-long, normal Lost River fault. These large fans are relict features, formed by major sheetfloods that occurred intermittently between ~15-180 ka. More recent deposition has been dominated by debris-flows that form small-radius (<2 km), steep (8- 17°), fans closely confined to the mountain front [1,2]. In order to determine the timing of fan surface stabilization, we have undertaken precise mass spectrometric 230Th/U dating of pedogenic carbonate from calcic soils that mantle fan surfaces on the Arco fault segment. Careful selection of mg-size samples of dense soil carbonate pebble coats, from within a trench that cuts through gravelly fan deposits, indicates that the fan soils are geochemically suitable for uranium-series dating (median U=7ppm, ²³²Th=0.09ppm, ²³²Th/²³⁰Th=154). ²³⁰Th/U analysis of these calcic soils can thus provide precise temporal constraints on intervals of surface stability and subsequent soil formation. The oldest fan surface (Qfo1, 178+/-8 ka), exposed within the footwall of the trench, suggests an interval of surface stability, indicating that the fan was likely abandoned due to incision early in MIS 6. Incision may have resulted from surface faulting along the Arco segment of the Lost River fault, but could relate to changes in stream power or sediment supply associated with climatic change or with auto-cyclic variations within the drainage basin. A younger incised and faulted fan surface (Qfo2, 69+/-6 ka), likely represents active alluviation at the beginning of MIS 4 and, since it formed as hanging-wall alluvial gravel, provides age limits on an episode of fault displacement between Qfo1 and Qfo2. In situ pedogenic carbonate coats on sub-angular gravels within the colluvial fault wedge date at 68+/-2 ka, suggesting that either faulting occurred soon after Qfo2 stabilized or that soil carbonate coats were recycled into the colluvial wedge from the faulted surface. Further studies in the Lost River Range will assess the timing of fan deposition, surface stabilization and fault activity since the late Pleistocene using coupled application of Optically Stimulated Thermoluminescence (OSL) dating of loess and fine-sands, and ²³⁰Th/U-dating of pedogenic carbonate formed within well- exposed fan stratigraphy. Defining intervals of erosion, deposition and stability within the context of regional records of Quaternary climate change will yield new insights into the interplay between faulting, climate change and alluvial fan deposition and incision in semi-arid environments. [1] Pierce, K.L., Scott, W.E., 1982. Idaho Mines & Geol. Bull. 26. [2] Patterson, S.J., 2006. M.S. Thesis, Montana State University