Project Details
Projekt
Quantifiying Paleo-denudation rates with cosmogenic nuclides in European river terraces
Applicant
Dr. Mirjam Schaller
Subject Area
Palaeontology
Term
from 2011 to 2016
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 191746289
We propose to study temporal and spatial variations in denudation across Europe as a function of Quaternary and Holocene climate change. Paleo-denudation rates will be determined from cosmogenic 10Be and 26Al measured in river terraces from four river catchments with different latitudes and geographic positions across the sub-continent. These samples will be used to test the hypothesis that Quaternary climate change significantly impacted catchment denudation rates, but that the effect of climate change on denudation is latitudinally dependent and perhaps asynchronous between catchments. Denudation histories will be determined from ~40 terraces over 12 degrees latitude from catchments in northern and southern Spain, northern France, and the Czech Republic. For each terrace Paleo-denudation rates will be calculated from 10Be concentrations in quartz. Many of the targeted terraces are already dated via other techniques, and undated terraces will be dated with the newly developed isochron technique that uses 10Be and 26Al in quartz. Observed denudation histories at each location will be compared to climate records using a Monte-Carlo based model that identifies the range of climate histories that could produce the observed denudation signal. This study has implications for global studies of a late-Cenozoic transients in denudation and will provide insight into how climate change influences catchment denudation.
DFG Programme
Research Grants
International Connection
Czech Republic, France, Spain, Switzerland
