Using cosmogenic nuclides to investigate the controls on erosion rates across the catchments of the Western Amazon

• Grant number: 25/00068-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: April 01, 2025
• End date: September 30, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Geosciences - Geology
• Principal Investigator: Fabiano do Nascimento Pupim
• Grantee: Gabriella Brandino de Campos
• Supervisor: Bodo Bookhagen
• Host Institution: Instituto de Ciências Ambientais, Químicas e Farmacêuticas (ICAQF). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Diadema. Diadema , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of Potsdam, Germany
• Associated to the scholarship: 23/16318-1 - Spatial distributions of sediment provenance and erosion rates of modern deposits in eastern Andean Cordillera and their relationship to natural controls, BP.MS

Abstract

The present-day landscape of the Andes and the Amazon is a result of the tectonic, climatic, and fluvial processes that shaped them over geological time. Thus, investigating modern deposits is key to understanding past natural processes and controls on landscape evolution. This Research Internships Abroad (BEPE) proposes to investigate the spatial variation of the catchment erosion rates for the Eastern Andes in Peru, Ecuador, and south Colombia using in-situ 10Be and 26Al cosmogenic nuclides (TCN) in modern deposits. Eleven riverbed sediments were collected from the Huallaga, Marañon, Ucayali, and Napo rivers, and they have already been pre-processed in Brazil for TCN analysis. The TCN results will be correlated with environmental changes (e.g., climatic and tectonic) and natural factors (e.g., topography, precipitation, temperature, lithology, and vegetation), contributing to a more comprehensive understanding of the natural controls on the landscape evolution on the Western Amazon. The host institution where this BEPE will be carried on, the Cosmogenic Laboratory at the University of Potsdam in Germany, is a world reference in TCN analysis, and the internship will be supervised by Prof. PhD Bodo Bookhagen, who is an expert in TCN analysis applied to geomorphological evolution.