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Abstract Deep exposures of soil profiles on Miocene or Mio-Pliocene alluvial deposits were studied along a 500 km N-S transect in the Atacama Desert. These ancient deposits, with excellent surface preservation, now stand many meters above a broad incised Plio-Pleistocene alluvial terrain. Total geochemical analyses and mass balance calculations allowed the establishment of elemental gains, losses, and redistribution in the soils. From north to south (presently hyperarid to arid), the ancient soils reveal an increase in losses of rock-forming elements (Si, Al, Fe, K, Mg). Additionally, rare earth elements (REE) show losses with increasing southerly latitude and systematic patterns with soil depth. Some REEs appear to be unique chemical tracers of exogenous dust and aerosol additions to the soils. The removal of major elements and REEs is impossible in the present climate (one of salt and dust accumulation), revealing that for a significant period following the deposition of the alluvium, soils were exposed to rainfall, chemical weathering, and mass loss—with a geographical pattern that mirrors the present rainfall gradient in the region. Following the cessation of weathering, the pre-weathered soils have undergone enormous dust and salt accumulations, with the rates and types of salt accumulation consistent with latitude: (1) carbonate in the south and (2) sulfate, chlorides, and nitrates to the north. The quantity, and apparent rates, of salt accumulation have a strong latitudinal trend. Isotopes of sulfate have predictable depth patterns based on isotope fractionation via vertical reaction and transport. The relict hyperarid soils are geochemically similar to buried Miocene soils (ca. 10–9 Ma) in the region, but they differ from older Miocene soils, which formed in more humid conditions. The overall soil record for the Atacama Desert appears to be the product of changes in Pacific Ocean sea surface temperatures over time, and resulting changes in rainfall. The mid-Miocene was relatively humid based on buried soil chemistry and evidence of fluvial activity. The mid to late Miocene cooling (ca. 10–5.5 Ma) appears to have aridified the region based on paleosol soil chemistry. Pliocene to earliest Pleistocene conditions caused weathering of the relict soils examined here, and regional fluvial activity. Since the earliest Pleistocene, the region has largely experienced the accumulation of salts and, except for smaller scale oscillations (glacial-interglacial), has experienced protracted hyperaridity. 

Abstract. The multiple-diffusion domain (MDD) model empirically describes the diffusive behavior of noble gases in some terrestrial materials and has been commonly used to interpret 40Ar/39Ar stepwise degassing observations in K-feldspar. When applied in this manner, the MDD model can be used to test crustal exhumation scenarios by identifying the permissible thermal paths a rock sample could have undergone over geologic time, assuming the diffusive properties of Ar within the mineral are accurately understood. More generally, the MDD model provides a framework for quantifying the temperature-dependent diffusivity of noble gases in minerals. However, constraining MDD parameters that successfully predict the results of step-heating diffusion experiments is a complex task, and the assumptions made by existing numerical methods used to quantify model parameters can bias the absolute temperatures permitted by thermal modeling. For example, the most commonly used method assumes that no domains lose more than 60 % of their gas during early heating steps (Lovera et al., 1997). This assumption is unverifiable, and we show that the Lovera et al. (1997) procedure may bias predicted temperatures towards lower values when it is violated. To address this potential bias and to provide greater accessibility to the MDD model, we present a new open-source method for constraining MDD parameters from stepwise degassing experimental results, called the “MDD Tool Kit” (https://github.com/dgorin1/mddtoolkit, last access: 11 October 2024). This software optimizes all MDD parameters simultaneously and removes any need for user-defined Ea or regression fitting choices used by other tools. In doing so, this new method eliminates assumptions about the domain size distribution. To test the validity of our thermal predictions, we then use the MDD Tool Kit (https://github.com/dgorin1/mddtoolkit) to interpret 40Ar/39Ar results from the Grayback Fault, AZ, USA. Although the resulting thermal histories are consistently ∼ 60–75 °C higher than those found in previous studies, they agree with independent observations from apatite fission track, zircon fission track, and (U-Th)/He. 

Abstract A key objective of the Perseverance rover mission is to acquire samples of Martian rocks for future return to Earth. Eventual laboratory analyses of these samples would address key questions about the evolution of the Martian climate, interior, and habitability. Many such investigations would benefit greatly from samples of Martian bedrock that are oriented in absolute Martian geographic coordinates. However, the Mars 2020 mission was designed without a requirement for orienting the samples. Here we describe a methodology that we developed for orienting rover drill cores in the Martian geographic frame and its application to Perseverance's first 20 rock samples. To orient the cores, three angles were measured: the azimuth and hade of the core pointing vector (i.e., vector oriented along the core axis) and the core roll (i.e., the solid body angle of rotation around the pointing vector). We estimated the core pointing vector from the attitude of the rover's Coring Drill during drilling. To orient the core roll, we used oriented images of asymmetric markings on the bedrock surface acquired with the rover's Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and eNgineering (WATSON) camera. For most samples, these markings were in the form of natural features on the outcrop, while for four samples they were artificial ablation pits produced by the rover's SuperCam laser. These cores are the first geographically‐oriented (<2.7° 3σtotal uncertainty) bedrock samples from another planetary body. This will enable a diversity of paleomagnetic, sedimentological, igneous, tectonic, and astrobiological studies on the returned samples. 

The origin of the phenomenon known as the Great Unconformity has been a fundamental yet unresolved problem in the geosciences for over a century. Recent hypotheses advocate either global continental exhumation averaging 3 to 5 km during Cryogenian (717 to 635 Ma) snowball Earth glaciations or, alternatively, diachronous episodic exhumation throughout the Neoproterozoic (1,000 to 540 Ma) due to plate tectonic reorganization from supercontinent assembly and breakup. To test these hypotheses, the temporal patterns of Neoproterozoic thermal histories were evaluated for four North American locations using previously published medium- to low-temperature thermochronology and geologic information. We present inverse time–temperature simulations within a Bayesian modeling framework that record a consistent signal of relatively rapid, high-magnitude cooling of ∼120 to 200 ° C interpreted as erosional exhumation of upper crustal basement during the Cryogenian. These models imply widespread, synchronous cooling consistent with at least ∼3 to 5 km of unroofing during snowball Earth glaciations, but also demonstrate that plate tectonic drivers, with the potential to cause both exhumation and burial, may have significantly influenced the thermal history in regions that were undergoing deformation concomitant with glaciation. In the cratonic interior, however, glaciation remains the only plausible mechanism that satisfies the required timing, magnitude, and broad spatial pattern of continental erosion revealed by our thermochronological inversions. To obtain a full picture of the extent and synchroneity of such erosional exhumation, studies on stable cratonic crust below the Great Unconformity must be repeated on all continents. 

Abstract. Diffusion properties of cosmogenic 3He in quartz at Earth surface temperatures offer the potential to directly reconstruct the evolution of pastin situ temperatures from formerly glaciated areas, which is important information for improving our understanding of glacier–climateinteractions. In this study, we apply cosmogenic 3He paleothermometry to rock surfaces gradually exposed from the Last Glacial Maximum(LGM) to the Holocene period along two deglaciation profiles in the European Alps (Mont Blanc and Aar massifs). Laboratory experiments conducted onone representative sample per site indicate significant differences in 3He diffusion kinetics between the two sites, with quasi-linearArrhenius behavior observed in quartz from the Mont Blanc site and complex Arrhenius behavior observed in quartz from the Aar site, which weinterpret to indicate the presence of multiple diffusion domains (MDD). Assuming the same diffusion kinetics apply to all quartz samples along eachprofile, forward model simulations indicate that the cosmogenic 3He abundance in all the investigated samples should be at equilibrium withpresent-day temperature conditions. However, measured cosmogenic 3He concentrations in samples exposed since before the Holocene indicate anapparent 3He thermal signal significantly colder than today. This observed 3He thermal signal cannot be explained with a realisticpost-LGM mean annual temperature evolution in the European Alps at the study sites. One hypothesis is that the diffusion kinetics and MDD modelapplied may not provide sufficiently accurate, quantitative paleo-temperature estimates in these samples; thus, while a pre-Holocene 3Hethermal signal is indeed preserved in the quartz, the helium diffusivity would be lower at Alpine surface temperatures than our diffusion modelspredict. Alternatively, if the modeled helium diffusion kinetics is accurate, the observed 3He abundances may reflect a complexgeomorphic and/or paleoclimatic evolution, with much more recent ground temperature changes associated with the degradation of alpine permafrost. 

Abstract The provocative hypothesis that the Shinumo Sandstone in the depths of Grand Canyon was the source for clasts of orthoquartzite in conglomerate of the Sespe Formation of coastal California, if verified, would indicate that a major river system flowed southwest from the Colorado Plateau to the Pacific Ocean prior to opening of the Gulf of California, and would imply that Grand Canyon had been carved to within a few hundred meters of its modern depth at the time of this drainage connection. The proposed Eocene Shinumo-Sespe connection, however, is not supported by detrital zircon nor paleomagnetic-inclination data and is refuted by thermochronology that shows that the Shinumo Sandstone of eastern Grand Canyon was >60 °C (∼1.8 km deep) and hence not incised at this time. A proposed 20 Ma (Miocene) Shinumo-Sespe drainage connection based on clasts in the Sespe Formation is also refuted. We point out numerous caveats and non-unique interpretations of paleomagnetic data from clasts. Further, our detrital zircon analysis requires diverse sources for Sespe clasts, with better statistical matches for the four “most-Shinumo-like” Sespe clasts with quartzites of the Big Bear Group and Ontario Ridge metasedimentary succession of the Transverse Ranges, Horse Thief Springs Formation from Death Valley, and Troy Quartzite of central Arizona. Diverse thermochronologic and geologic data also refute a Miocene river pathway through western Grand Canyon and Grand Wash trough. Thus, Sespe clasts do not require a drainage connection from Grand Canyon or the Colorado Plateau and provide no constraints for the history of carving of Grand Canyon. Instead, abundant evidence refutes the “old” (70–17 Ma) Grand Canyon models and supports a <6 Ma Grand Canyon. 

Abstract High‐relief glacial valleys shape the modern topography of the Southern Patagonian Andes, but their formation remains poorly understood. Two Miocene plutonic complexes in the Andean retroarc, the Fitz Roy (49°S) and Torres del Paine (51°S) massifs, were emplaced between 16.9–16.4 Ma and 12.6–12.4 Ma, respectively. Subduction of oceanic ridge segments initiated ca. 16 Ma at 54°S, leading to northward opening of a slab window with associated mantle upwelling. The onset of major glaciations caused drastic topographic changes since ca. 7 Ma. To constrain the respective contributions of tectonic‐mantle dynamics and fluvio‐glacial erosion to rock exhumation and landscape evolution, we perform inverse thermal modeling of a new data set of zircon and apatite (U‐Th)/He from the two massifs, complemented by apatite⁴He/³He data for Torres del Paine. Our results show rapid rock exhumation recorded only in the Fitz Roy massif between 10 and 8 Ma, which we ascribe to local mantle upwelling forcing surface uplift and intensified erosion around 49°S. Both massifs record a pulse of rock exhumation between 7 and 4 Ma, which we interpret as enhanced erosion during the beginning of Patagonian glaciations. After a period of erosional and tectonic quiescence in the Pliocene, increased rock exhumation since 3–2 Ma is interpreted as the result of alpine glacial valley carving promoted by reinforced glacial‐interglacial cycles. This study highlights that glacial erosion was the main driver to rock exhumation in the Patagonian retroarc since 7 Ma, but that mantle upwelling might be a driving force to rock exhumation as well.