Dominance of tectonics over climate in Himalayan denudation

International audienceLandscape denudation in actively deforming mountain ranges is controlled by a combination of rock uplift and surface runoff induced by precipitation. Whereas the relative contribution of these factors is important to our understanding of the evolution of orogenic topography, no consensus currently exists concerning their respective influences. To address this question, denudation rates at centennial to millennial time scales were deduced from 10Be concentrations in detrital sediments derived from 30 small basins (10-600 km2) in an [~]200-km-wide region in central Nepal. Along a northward, strike-perpendicular transect, average denudation rates sharply increase from