Articles | Volume 9, issue 5
https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-9-1153-2021
https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-9-1153-2021
Research article
 | 
10 Sep 2021
Research article |  | 10 Sep 2021

Bias and error in modelling thermochronometric data: resolving a potential increase in Plio-Pleistocene erosion rate

Sean D. Willett, Frédéric Herman, Matthew Fox, Nadja Stalder, Todd A. Ehlers, Ruohong Jiao, and Rong Yang

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Cited articles

Armstrong, P. A., Ehlers, T. A., Chapman, D. S., Farley, K. A., and Kamp, P. J.: Exhumation of the central Wasatch Mountains, Utah: 1. Patterns and timing of exhumation deduced from low-temperature thermochronology data, J. Geophys. Res.-Sol. Ea., 108, https://doi.org/10.1029/2001JB001708, 2003. 
Avdeev, B. and Niemi, N. A.: Rapid Pliocene exhumation of the central Greater Caucasus constrained by low-temperature thermochronometry Tectonics, 30, https://doi.org/10.1029/2010TC002808, 2011. 
Backus, G. and Gilbert, F.: The resolving power of gross earth data, Geophys. J. Int., 16, 169–205, 1968. 
Ballato, P., Landgraf, A., Schildgen, T. F., Stockli, D. F., Fox, M., Ghassemi, M. R., Kirby, E., and Strecker, M. R.: The growth of a mountain belt forced by base-level fall: Tectonics and surface processes during the evolution of the Alborz Mountains, N Iran, Earth Planet. Sc. Lett., 425, 204–218, 2015. 
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The cooling climate of the last few million years leading into the ice ages has been linked to increasing erosion rates by glaciers. One of the ways to measure this is through mineral cooling ages. In this paper, we investigate potential bias in these data and the methods used to analyse them. We find that the data are not themselves biased but that appropriate methods must be used. Past studies have used appropriate methods and are sound in methodology.