Landscape evolution and exhumation history during active continental extension: the central Menderes Massif, western Turkey

在构造活跃的地区，地壳变形和地表过程共同塑造了地球的地貌。为了重建地球表面的时空演化，评估长期和短期过程对景观演化的影响，在不同时间尺度上量化断层和地表过程的速率是不可避免的。在拟议的项目中，我们将研究大陆伸展期间的景观演变，在那里，岩石的挖掘不仅发生在侵蚀（如在地壳缩短的地区），而且还发生在正常的断层作用下。迄今为止，在这种积极扩展的地区，对景观演化速度的定量限制很少，因此对所涉及过程的相对重要性的了解有限。在我们的项目中，我们将使用宇宙成因核素和低温热年代学来揭示大陆延伸的一个关键地区，中部门德雷斯地块（土耳其西部）的景观演变。在爱琴海地区的这一部分，中新世以来持续的双辐合伸展造成了明显的地形不对称，地块的浅倾斜侧翼是滑脱断层的地貌表现，而陡峭的悬崖可能主要是高角度的正断层。Menderes地块中部提供了良好的露头条件，包括保存完好的剥离断层和理想的岩性，用于宇宙核素（10Be）和低温热年代学。使用10Be，我们将确定广泛流域形态的空间平均侵蚀率。我们的10Be数据将解决断层引起的地形不对称如何影响全新世侵蚀模式。通过比较整个流域的侵蚀率与从山脊顶部获得的局部侵蚀率，我们将破译孟德雷斯地块中部的地形是否仍在增长。从磷灰石和锆石(U-Th)/He和裂变径迹测年中，我们将获得冷却年龄，这些年龄将用于得出a)构造门德勒斯地块中央的两条拆离断层的滑动速率和b)挖掘模式及其假设的时空变化。热年代数据将使用先进的3D热运动学建模（PECUBE软件）进行分析，这将产生断层几何形状和滑动速率以及挖掘和侵蚀速率的定量约束。通过结合两种方法的结果，我们将提供岩石发掘，正断层作用和大陆伸展期间景观发育的全面综合。最终，我们的研究结果将促进对跨时间尺度景观演化的理解。

In tectonically active regions, crustal deformation and surface processes act in concert to shape Earth's landscapes. To reconstruct the spatiotemporal evolution of the Earth's surface and to evaluate the impact of long-term and short-term processes on landscape evolution, quantifying the rates of faulting and surface processes across different time scales is inevitable. In the proposed project, we will investigate landscape evolution during continental extension, where exhumation of rocks does not only occur by erosion (as in regions undergoing crustal shortening) but also by normal faulting. To date, quantitative constraints on rates of landscape evolution in such actively extending regions is sparse and hence knowledge about the relative importance of the involved processes limited. In our project we will use cosmogenic nuclides and low-temperature thermochronology to unravel the landscape evolution across time scales in a key region of continental extension, the central Menderes Massif (western Turkey). In this part of the Aegean realm, ongoing bivergent extension since the Miocene has created a pronounced topographic asymmetry, with the shallow-dipping flanks of the massif being the geomorphological expression of detachment faults while steep escarpments are presumably dominated by high-angle normal faulting. The central Menderes Massif offers excellent outcrop conditions including well preserved detachment faults and ideal lithologies for applying both cosmogenic nuclides (10Be) and low-temperature thermochronology. Using 10Be, we will determine spatially averaged erosion rates for a broad spectrum of catchment morphologies. Our 10Be data will resolve how the fault-induced topographic asymmetry influences the Holocene erosion pattern. By comparing catchment-wide erosion rates with local erosion rates to be obtained from ridge crests, we will decipher if the relief in the central Menderes Massif is still growing. From apatite and zircon (U-Th)/He and fission track dating, we will obtain cooling ages that will be used to derive a) the slip rates of the two detachment faults framing the central Menderes Massif and b) the exhumation pattern and its hypothesized spatiotemporal variation. The thermochronological data will be analysed using advanced 3D thermokinematic modelling (software PECUBE), which will yield quantitative constraints on fault geometry and slip rates as well as on exhumation and erosion rates. By combining the results from both methods, we will provide a comprehensive synthesis of rock exhumation, normal faulting, and landscape development during continental extension. Ultimately, our results will advance the understanding of landscape evolution across time scales.