Reconciling tectonic shortening, sedimentation and spatial patterns of erosion from ¹⁰Be paleo-erosion rates in the Argentine Precordillera

The temporal evolution of erosion over million-year timescales is key to understand the development of mountain ranges and adjacent fold-and-thrust belts. While models of orogenic wedge dynamics predict an instantaneous response of erosion to pulses of rock uplift, stream-power based models predict that catchment-wide erosion maxima significantly lag behind a pulse of rock uplift. Here, we explore the relationships between rock uplift, erosion, and sediment deposition in the Argentine Precordillera fold-and-thrust belt at 30°S. Using a combination of ¹⁰Be-derived paleo-erosion rates, constraints on re-exposure using ²⁶Al/¹⁰Be ratios, geomorphic observations and detrital zircon provenance, we demonstrate that the attainment of maximum upland erosion rates lags the maximum rate of deformation over million-year timescales. The magnitudes and causes of the erosional delays shed new light on the catchment erosional response to tectonic deformation and rock uplift in orogenic wedges.