Dear Colleagues,

 You are invited to submit abstracts for the following session at the XVII INQUA Congress (Cairns, Australia, 28 July - 3 August 2007). Deadline for submission is 31st January 2007. Abstracts can now be submitted through: http://www.inqua2007.net.au/

We are looking forward to receiving your abstracts.

Landscape evolution processes in semi-arid environments: new insights from OSL and cosmogenic nuclides:

David Fink (Australia), Ed Rhodes (Australia), Paul Bierman (USA)

Various methods and models have been used over the past few decades to study rates of landscape change in arid and semi-arid regions.  Using advances in OSL techniques, new approaches in amalgamating surface sediment samples, and modelling depth profiles of cosmogenic nuclide concentrations, we are now able to quantify processes of landscape evolution - sediment generation, transport, and storage in arid and semi-arid environments over timescales from 1 ka to 1 Ma integrated over areas ranging from 1 to 104 km2.  The use of OSL dating and cosmogenic nuclide ‘tracing ‘ of sediment  across various features starting from source  regions on mountain peaks and exposed bedrock, through  transport  and recycling within river-valley systems, to distribution and deposition on piedmont  surfaces, terraces and alluvial fans has demonstrated that the diverse history of individual grains can be integrated to provide a coherent understanding of process and process rates. Using these tools, existing paradigms of surface modification can now be tested quantitatively.

In this session, we invite submissions which demonstrate the application of these techniques to regional studies in semi-arid systems, including regolith, dune fields, fluvial deposition, river incision and piedmonts. Comparisons of denudation and sediment generation rates between different regions and implications for climate and/or tectonic forcing are most welcome.