Tuesday, 28 August 2007 - 10:30 AM
2.A.D-2

Regolith transport in the Dry Valleys of Antarctica

Jaakko Putkonen, Matt Rosales, Nathan Turpen, Daniel Morgan, Greg Balco, and Melvin Donaldson. Earth and Space Sciences, University of Washington, MS 351310, Seattle, WA 98195

The stability of ground surface and preservation of landforms that record past events and environments is of great importance as the geologic and climatic history is evaluated in the Dry Valleys of Antarctica. Currently little is known about the past and present regolith transportation that tends to eradicate and confound such record and is an indicator of the environment of itself. Based on analyses of repeat photographs, soil traps, and pebble transport distances it was found that there is a large spatial variation in topographic diffusivities at least in the annual basis and that counter intuitively the highest topographic diffusivities are found in the alpine valleys that are located further inland from the lowest values near the coast. An average topographic diffusivity for the Dry Valleys was determined to be 10-5–10-4 m2/yr. This average topographic diffusivity is surprisingly large equaling or bordering the smallest values from elsewhere on Earth.

[Manuscript]

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