From XRD signal to erosion rate maps

Abstract

Understanding the spatio-temporal dynamics of suspended sediment source activation is essential for effective ecological management, risk assessment, and infrastructure planning. Provenance analysis, which traces sediment origins, plays a crucial role in these applications, but is often based on costly fingerprinting methods. In this study, we validate a time- and cost-effective fingerprinting approach based on X-ray diffraction (XRD) data. We implement and compare two non-linear inversion schemes (steepest descent and Quasi-Newtonian) applied to binned XRD data and spatial information on potential source areas, in order to invert detrital mineralogical data into erosion rate maps while quantifying posterior uncertainty and error propagation. Forward-inverse tests with synthetic data demonstrate consistent convergence of the posterior solution and reveal the influence of geological complexity, tracer selection, and signal blending on inversion performance. The application to real-world datasets from the Gornergletscher catchment further validates the practical utility and robustness of the model.