Quantifying fluvial and glacial erosion using detrital thermochronology, cosmogenic nuclides and numerical modelling: a case study in the European Alps

• Applicant: Dr. Christoph Glotzbach
• Subject Area: Palaeontology
• Term: from 2012 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 219522370

• Final Report Year: 2016

Final Report Abstract

The work completed in this project advanced our understanding of landscape evolution of strongly glaciated mountains in the following ways: • First, the quantification of focused glacial erosion of major valleys requires a dense thermochronological dataset including samples from the valley bottom, valley side and ridges. • Second, cosmogenic nuclide concentrations in stream sediments from strongly glaciated catchments may not represent the average catchment concentration due to lateral variations in nuclide production and erosion rates. • Third, it seems that part of the exhumation of the Aar massif started earlier than previously thought and the initiation of major glaciation at ~1 Ma led to a significant increase in valley incision and local relief. • Fourth, the thermochronological data requires that the maximum of the Pleistocene glacial erosion occurred at a distinct elevation range (~1000-1600 m), that roughly matches the assumed Pleistocene/LGM ELA. • Fifth, the age distribution of detrital thermochronological data of modern stream sediments can be modelled assuming erosion peaks at low elevation (~900-1600 m) and high elevation (~2800-3400 m), which we interpret as increased erosion at the former(Pleistocene/LGM) and present-day ELA.

Publications

• (2014): Quantifying glacial erosion combining bedrock and detrital thermochronology in the Bernese Alps, 14th International Conference on Thermochronology, Chamonix, France
  Wangenheim, C., C. Glotzbach, P.W. Kubik
  
• (2015): Quantifying glacial erosion in the European Alps using apatite fission track dating, EGU 2015 Meeting, Vienna, Austria. Geophysical Research Abstracts, v. 17, EGU2015-1729
  Wangenheim, C., C. Glotzbach
  
• (2015): Quantifying glacial erosion in the European Alps with thermochronological age distributions, AGU Fall Meeting 2015, San Francisco, USA
  Wangenheim, C., C. Glotzbach
  
• (2015): The front of the Aar Massif: A crustal-scale ramp anticline? EGU 2015 Meeting, Vienna, Austria. Geophysical Research Abstracts, v. 17, EGU2015-11769
  Herwegh, M., S. Mock, P. Wehrens, R. Baumberger, A. Berger, C. Wangenheim, C. Glotzbach, E. Kissling
  
• 2016, Ph.D Thesis: Quantifying fluvial and glacial erosion using (detrital) thermochronology, cosmogenic nuclides and numerical modelling: A case study in the European Alps, University of Hannover
  Wangenheim, C.