The Quaternary history of the Rio Diamante, Mendoza Province, Argentina

Piedmont aggradation has a large impact on denudation rates of mountain ranges because it controls the base-level for erosion upstream. Trends in fluvial aggradation and incision across piedmonts can also reveal differential rock uplift resulting from tectonic activity. The subject of this thesis is the Quaternary aggradation and incision history of a piedmont reach of the Rio Diamante, a river which drains a 2500 km2 area of the southern central Andes. The catchment is located within a latitudinal zone of the Andes (∼33-37°S) which is transitional in terms of morphology and foreland tectonics. North of 33°S, compressional deformation and uplift is active across a wide zone of the foreland, whereas south of ∼35°S, crustal shortening has been confined to a narrow mountain belt to the east of which lies an area of extension and back-arc volcanism. The study reach of the Rio Diamante, at 34.5°S, flows eastwards between the mountain front and the San Rafael Block, which is the southernmost expression of shortening east of the main Andean cordillera. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...