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Volume 23, Issue 6
  • E-ISSN: 1365-2117

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Deeply incised drainage networks are thought to be robust and not easily modified, and are commonly used as passive markers of horizontal strain. Yet, reorganizations (rearrangements) appear in the geologic record. We provide field evidence of the reorganization of a Miocene drainage network in response to strike–slip and vertical displacements in Guatemala. The drainage was deeply incised into a 50‐km‐wide orogen located along the North America–Caribbean plate boundary. It rearranged twice, first during the Late Miocene in response to transpressional uplift along the Polochic fault, and again in the Quaternary in response to transtensional uplift along secondary faults. The pattern of reorganization resembles that produced by the tectonic defeat of rivers that cross growing tectonic structures. Compilation of remote sensing data, field mapping, sediment provenance study, grain‐size analysis and Ar40/Ar39 dating from paleovalleys and their fill reveals that the classic mechanisms of river diversion, such as river avulsion over bedrock, or capture driven by surface runoff, are not sufficient to produce the observed diversions. The sites of diversion coincide spatially with limestone belts and reactivated fault zones, suggesting that solution‐triggered or deformation‐triggered permeability have helped breaching of interfluves. The diversions are also related temporally and spatially to the accumulation of sediment fills in the valleys, upstream of the rising structures. We infer that the breaching of the interfluves was achieved by headward erosion along tributaries fed by groundwater flow tracking from the valleys soon to be captured. Fault zones and limestone belts provided the pathways, and the aquifers occupying the valley fills provided the head pressure that enhanced groundwater circulation. The defeat of rivers crossing the rising structures results essentially from the tectonically enhanced activation of groundwater flow between catchments.

© 2011 The Authors. Basin Research © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers and International Association of Sedimentologists
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2011-05-18
2024-04-24

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Reorganization of a deeply incised drainage: role of deformation, sedimentation and groundwater flow
Basin Research 23, 631 (2011); https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2117.2011.00510.x
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Paleosols of Sicaché. Grain size of gravel deposits. Sediment provenance in the paleovalleys of Sicaché (V4) and Chitapol (V5). Sediment provenance in V7 (Chicruz).Ar‐Ar istopic data: step‐heating for samples from ignimbrites pertaining to the Colotenango Beds, V0 (2‐61), Sicaché paleovalley, V5 (7‐71, 7‐72), and Chitapol paleovalley, V4 (7‐141). General characteristics of the paleovalleys. Major element composition of Miocene ignimbrites and derived Miocene soils, obtained by X‐ray fluorescence. Weathering indices in paleosoils developed on top of Ignimbrite 1, V5. Grain size measurements. Clast assortment, paleovalleys V4, V5 and V7. Area occupied by rock source units in the reconstructed paleocatchments of Figures S3 and S4.Ar/Ar isotopic analyses. General characteristics of the paleovalleys. Geochemical analyses of ignimbrites and soils. Grain size characteristics of fluvial deposits. Clast provenance for paleovalleys V4 (Chitapol), V5 (Sicaché) and V7 (Chicruz).Ar/Ar isotopic analyses.Please note: Wiley‐Blackwell is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting materials supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing material) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.

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