Rock uplift increased sensitivity of fluvial response to suborbital climatic fluctuations

Terrace formation ages in a river system reveal that incision of large rivers is unevenly distributed, but the underlying forcing mechanisms are not entirely clear. One key challenge is to understanding the coupling mechanism of how uplift and climate interact in controlling terrace generation. Lack of well-dated fluvial terrace sequences allowing direct comparison with available uplift and climate data prevents resolving this issue. Here we reported a most densely distributed fluvial terrace sequence from the NE Tibetan Plateau. The results reveal two periods of frequent incisions at 90–80 and 55–45 ka, synchronous with indications from other rivers originating from the inner plateau. These two intervals do not align with climatic anomalies, thus indicating accelerated rock uplift. This work demonstrates that the coupling between rapid uplift and erodible substrate increases the sensitivity of fluvial response to suborbital climatic fluctuations to create more terraces in the Yellow River and likely other large rivers.