ALBERT

Description: This research is focused on the composition of the sediments produced in volcanic islands when the climate does not favour weathering. The XRD mineralogy (bulk sample and fraction finer than 63 µm), petrography and geochemistry of a set of bedload stream and beach samples collected in the “old” Maio and the “young” Fogo islands of Cape Verde archipelago are used to investigate the compositional transformations promoted by exogenous processes during island denudation. The main factor responsible for the variability in sediment composition is the incorporation of biogenic material derived from the evolving shelves; it largely exceeds the effects of the exhumation of different volcanic and basement units. Given the arid climate (and steep land surface in Fogo), only the most labile components of basaltic rocks, such as volcanic glass, are decomposed. The incipient weathering and sorting processes are responsible for the depletion of Al in bedload deposits. The same happens with other elements usually regarded as non-mobile (namely, Nb, Th, REE, etc.), while Mg is concentrated. Thus, weathering indices grounded on the premise that “mobile” elements are lost and “non-mobile” elements are enriched via weathering are useless in Cape Verde bedload sediments. With time, weathering is able to promote Na leaching and the formation of secondary minerals, which tend to retain non-mobile elements released in the earlier stages of alteration (e.g., LREE, Th, Y, Nb, Ta etc.). Sorting processes are responsible for the selective removal of less-dense grains, explaining local differences between beach and stream deposits. Beach placers are enriched in augitic clinopyroxene (occasionally also in olivine in the Fogo island), and Sc, Cr and Co. Niobium and Ta must be hosted in fine-grained particles that are easily windblown and their abundances in dusts may reveal Cape Verde as a source of airborne material crossing the Atlantic Ocean.

Description: Highlights • Main trunk and tributary provenance not stable until after late Miocene. • Hydraulic sorting drives fine and coarse sediment 87Sr/86Sr and decoupling. • Sagaing Fault beheaded tributaries after 14 Ma in west and 11 Ma in east. • Quaternary provenance reflects post-10 Ma inversion and entrenchment. Abstract The deposits of large Asian rivers with unique drainage geometries have attracted considerable attention due to their explanatory power concerning tectonism, surface uplift and upstream drainage evolution. This study presents the first petrographic, heavy mineral, Nd and Sr isotope geochemistry, and detrital zircon geochronology results from the Holocene Irrawaddy megadelta alongside modern and ancient sedimentary provenance datasets to assess the late Neogene evolution of the Irrawaddy River. Contrary to models advocating a steady post-middle Miocene river, we reveal an evolution of the Irrawaddy River more compatible with regional evidence for kinematic reorganization in Myanmar during late-stage India-Asia collision. Quaternary sediments are remarkably consistent in terms of provenance but highlight significant decoupling amongst fine and coarse fraction 87Sr/86Sr and due to hydraulic sorting. Only well after the late Miocene do petrographic, heavy mineral, isotope geochemistry, and detrital zircon U–Pb results from the trunk Irrawaddy and its tributaries achieve modern-day signatures. The primary driver giving rise to the geometry and provenance signature of the modern Irrawaddy River was regional late Miocene (≤10 Ma) basin inversion coupled with uplift and cumulative displacement along the Sagaing Fault. Middle to late Miocene provenance signatures cannot be reconciled with modern river geometries, and thus require significant loss of headwaters feeding the Chindwin subbasin after ∼14 Ma and the northern Shwebo subbasin after ∼11 Ma. Large-scale reworking after ∼7 Ma is evidenced by modern Irrawaddy River provenance, by entrenchment of the nascent drainage through Plio-Pleistocene inversion structures, and in the transfer of significant sediment volumes to the Andaman Sea.