Landscape response to tectonic deformation and cyclic climate change since ca. 800 ka in the southern Central Andes

Theory suggests that the response time of alluvial-channel systems to perturbations in climate can be related to the magnitude and direction of the forcing, and the length of the system; shorter systems may record a higher frequency of forcing compared to longer systems. The Toro Basin in the Eastern Cordillera of NW Argentina has preserved a suite of eight alluvial-fan deposits along the western flanks of the Sierra de Pascha. Farther downstream, a flight of cut-and-fill terraces have been linked to eccentricity-driven (100-kyr) climate cycles since ca. 500 ka. We applied cosmogenic radionuclide (¹⁰Be) exposure dating to the fan surfaces to explore (1) how channel responses to external perturbations may or may not propagate downstream, and (2) the differences in landscape response to forcing frequency as a function of channel length when comparing the upper basin alluvial fan deposits with the lower basin terrace sequence. Our new Toro ¹⁰Be dataset consisted of 30 boulder samples from the fan surfaces and five pebble samples from a fan depth profile. We identified two generations of fan surface; the first (G1) and second (G2) generations record surface activity and abandonment between ca. 800 and 500 ka, and within the last 100 kyr, respectively. G1 fans record a prolonged phase of net incision, which has been recognised throughout the Central Andes, and was likely triggered by prolonged and enhanced global glacial cycles following the Mid-Pleistocene Transition. Relative fan surface stability followed, while 100-kyr cut-and-fill cycles recorded by the fluvial terraces persisted downstream, suggesting a disconnect in behaviour between the two reaches. G2 fans record higher frequency climate forcing, possibly the result of precessional forcing of climate (ca. 21/40-kyr timescales). The lack of a high-frequency signal farther downstream provides field support for theoretical predictions of a filtering of high-frequency climate forcing with increasing channel length. We show that multiple climate periodicities can be preserved within the sedimentary record of a single basin. Differences in the timing of alluvial fan and fluvial terrace development in the Toro Basin appear to be associated with how channel length affects fluvial response times to climate forcing as well as local controls on net incision, such as tectonic deformation.