Sand, gravel, cobbles, and boulders: Detrital thermochronology shows that one size does not tell all

Detrital thermochronology has been used to measure sediment source elevations, and thus to quantify spatial variations in sediment production and erosion in steep mountain catchments. Samples commonly include a small fraction of the sediment sizes present on mountain streambeds, which according to previous modeling, may not adequately represent sediment production where hillslope sediment sizes vary or where sediment breaks down during transport. Here we explore what can be learned from multiple sizes by quantifying source elevation distributions for 12 sediment size classes collected from Inyo Creek, eastern Sierra Nevada, California. To interpret these data, we use a new analytical framework that identifies both the elevations where sediment sources deviate from catchment hypsometry and the likelihood that observed cumulative deviations could occur by chance. We find that sediment in four gravel and cobble size classes originates preferentially from higher elevations, either because e..., , ,
# Sand, gravel, cobbles, and boulders: Detrital thermochronology shows that one size does not tell all

[Access this dataset on Dryad](https://doi.org/10.6071/M3VH5W)

This dataset includes apatite (U-Th)/He ages measured in 12 sediment sizes from Inyo Creek, California. One new bedrock age from the top of Lone Pine Peak is also reported, along with bedrock ages previously reported by Stock et al., 2006 and House et al., 1997.

## Description of the data and file structure

(U-Th)/He ages are available as excel spreadsheets. The detrital dataset is reported in one spreadsheet, and is organized by sediment size class, from small (sand; 1-2 mm) to large (boulders; >256 mm). Refer to the manuscript main text for sampling and processing protocols. The bedrock data are reported in a second tab of the excel file.

The detritral dataset includes 713 individual crystal ages, for which we report the measured 4He, 235U, 232Th, and 147Sm, along with analytical uncertainties (one standard de...