New 10Be-26Al isochron burial dating informs the Pliocene and Pleistocene evolution of the lower Colorado River, southwestern United States

Abstract

Four new10Be-26Al isochron burial ages ranging from 4.4 to 2 Ma on ancestral Colorado River deposits in the lower Colorado River corridor (LCRC) help constrain the river's evolution during the Pliocene and early Pleistocene. They help fill a gap between previous work that focused on older and younger deposits: Older dated deposits include the 5 Ma Bouse Formation, which records the integration of the Colorado River through a series of preexisting basins to the Gulf of California and the ca. 4.5-3.5 Ma Bullhead Alluvium, a 200 to 300 m thick aggregational package that immediately followed integration. The much younger, 100-70 ka, Chemehuevi Formation is another major aggradation package mapped throughout the LCRC. The new burial ages on the facies of Santa Fe Railway (4.37 +/- 0.71 Ma), boulder conglomerate ofBat Cave Wash (2.12 +/- 0.26 and 2.05 +/- 0.31 Ma), and the Palo Verde alluvium (3.03 +/- 0.26 Ma) partially fill in a 3.5 M.y. gap between the deposition of the Bullhead Alluvium and the Chemeheuvi Formation and document the timescales over which the Colorado River was able to remove the Bullhead aggradational package and initiate newer and smaller aggradational pulses.