Quaternary glaciation history of northern Switzerland

Preusser, Frank

doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2012.08.1202

Cited by 26 publications

(64 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…The results suggest that drainage reorganization can account for a significant amount of Pliocene-modern incision within the Aare-Rhine River basin in the Alpine Foreland (Table 2) [Mazurek et al, 2006;Cederbom et al, 2011;Schlunegger and Mosar, 2011]. The model predictions are consistent with a number of observations in the region including (1) rapid pulses of incision and the abandonment of regional terrace levels [Graf, 1993;Graf, 2009;Kock et al, 2009;Preusser et al, 2011], (2) the magnitude of erosion through the Pliocene-Pleistocene in the Rhine and Danube basins [Mazurek et al, 2006;Willett and Schlunegger, 2010], and (3) the pattern of erosion following terrace abandonment [Preusser et al, 2011] (e.g., rather uniform upstream of the capture and decaying downstream of capture). We now discuss each of these predictions and the corresponding observations.…”

Section: Implications For the Erosion Of The Rhine River Basinsupporting

confidence: 75%

“…Decreasing the headwaters median grain size by half reduces the magnitude of incision to 214 m (a reduction of~70%), whereas doubling the median grain to 20 cm increases the magnitude of incision to >2000 m. This produces unrealistic relief ( Figure 9C). Further, more than 2 km of erosion in northern Switzerland is unlikely as terrace records suggest much less incision [e.g., Preusser et al, 2011]. Maximum incision rates and transience timescale are also sensitive to grain size, though the sensitivity is less than incision magnitude.…”

Section: Sensitivity Of Results To Sediment Grain Size Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is evidenced by a series of gravel terrace levels, which can be mapped in the region of the modern Rhine and Aare Rivers [Preusser et al, 2011]. The Höhere (higher) Deckenschotter (1.8-2.5 Ma; [Bolliger et al, 1996]) and the Tiefere (lower) Deckenschotter form distinct terrace levels, which are located 100-300 m and 50-200 m above the modern river course, respectively (Figure 3).…”

Section: Geologic Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

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High magnitude and rapid incision from river capture: Rhine River, Switzerland

et al. 2013

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[1] Landscape evolution is controlled by the development and organization of drainage basins. As a landscape evolves, drainage reorganization events can occur via river capture or piracy, whereby one river basin grows at the expense of another. The river downstream of a capture location will generate a transient topographic response as the added water discharge increases sediment transport and erosion efficiency. This erosional response will propagate upstream through both the captured and original river basins. Here we focus on quantifying the impact of drainage reorganization along the Rhine/Aare River system (~45,000 km 2 ) during the late Pliocene/early Pleistocene, where gravel remnants indicate total incision of~650 m during the last~4.2 Myr in the region of the recent Aare-Rhine confluence. We develop a numerical model of drainage capture to quantify the range of possible magnitudes of erosion and the transient river response resulting from the reorganization of the Rhine River. The model accounts for both fluvial incision and sediment transport. Our model estimates 400-800 m of river elevation change (lowering profiles) during the last~4 Myr due to river capture events, providing an important component to the recent exhumation budget of the Swiss Alpine Foreland. The model indicates a rapid response to capture events (re-equilibration timescale of~1 Myr). The predicted incision magnitudes are consistent with incision measured from the elevation of Pliocene and early Pleistocene river gravels, suggesting that across northern Switzerland, a significant amount of incision can be explained by drainage reorganization.

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Section: Implications For the Erosion Of The Rhine River Basinsupporting

confidence: 75%

Section: Sensitivity Of Results To Sediment Grain Size Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Geologic Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

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High magnitude and rapid incision from river capture: Rhine River, Switzerland

et al. 2013

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“…This explains the lack of widespread thick loess deposits as they exist, for example, in southeastern Germany, southeastern and eastern Europe (Haase et al, 2007). Nevertheless, there are a few sites in Switzerland where loess has been found (Gouda, 1962;Preusser et al, 2011;Gaar and Preusser, 2017), and they might have potential for paleoenvironmental reconstruction. One of these sites is the Möhliner Feld in northwestern Switzerland (Fig.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Until recently, there was a subdued ridge considered to be a terminal moraine of the most extensive glaciation (MEG; > 300 ka) in the Swiss Alps (Gutzwiler, 1894;Penck and Brückner, 1909;Keller and Krayss, 2011). However, the ridge cannot be linked to the MEG, because till containing Alpine material is only found 30 m below the surface and covered by gravel and loess (Preusser et al, 2011;Gaar and Preusser, 2017). While the till can be attributed to the MEG, although no numerical age control is available, the ridge has to be interpreted as a loess dune, not as a moraine, as it consists of loess (Gaar and Preusser, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Late Quaternary climate and environmental reconstruction based on leaf wax analyses in the loess sequence of Möhlin, Switzerland

Wüthrich

Bliedtner

Schäfer

et al. 2017

E&G Quaternary Sci. J.

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Late Quaternary climate and environmental reconstruction based on leaf wax analyses in the loess sequence of Möhlin, Switzerland, E&G Quaternary Sci. J., 66, 91-100, https://doi.org/10.5194/egqsj-66-91-2017, 2017. Abstract:We present the results of leaf wax analyses (long-chain n-alkanes) from the 6.8 m deep loess sequence of Möhlin, Switzerland, spanning the last ∼ 70 kyr. Leaf waxes are well preserved and occur in sufficient amounts only down to 0.4 m and below 1.8 m depth, so no paleoenvironmental reconstructions can be done for marine isotope stage (MIS) 2.Compound-specific δ 2 H wax analyses yielded similar values for late MIS 3 compared to the uppermost samples, indicating that various effects (e.g., more negative values due to lower temperatures, more positive values due to an enriched moisture source) cancel each other out. A pronounced ∼ 30 ‰ shift towards more negative values probably reflects more humid conditions before ∼ 32 ka. Radiocarbon dating of the n-alkanes corroborates the stratigraphic integrity of leaf waxes and their potential for dating loess-paleosol sequences (LPS) back to ∼ 30 ka. Kurzfassung:Wir präsentieren die Ergebnisse von Blattwachsanalysen (langkettige n-Alkane) aus einer 6.8 m mächtigen Löss-Sequenz bei Möhlin, Schweiz, welche bis etwa 70 ka zurückreicht. Nur bis 0.4 m Tiefe und unterhalb von 1.8 m sind die Blattwachse gut und in ausreichender Menge erhalten, so dass Aussagen bezüglich der Umweltbedingungen während der marinen Isotopenstufe (MIS) 2 nicht gemacht werden können. Die Muster der n-Alkane zeigen für alle Proben einen dominanten Input von Gras-Alkanen, jedoch ist es nur anhand der n-Alkane nicht möglich,

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Lithologic Effects on Landscape Response to Base Level Changes: A Modeling Study in the Context of the Eastern Jura Mountains, Switzerland

et al. 2017

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Landscape evolution is a product of the forces that drive geomorphic processes (e.g., tectonics and climate) and the resistance to those processes. The underlying lithology and structural setting in many landscapes set the resistance to erosion. This study uses a modified version of the Channel‐Hillslope Integrated Landscape Development (CHILD) landscape evolution model to determine the effect of a spatially and temporally changing erodibility in a terrain with a complex base level history. Specifically, our focus is to quantify how the effects of variable lithology influence transient base level signals. We set up a series of numerical landscape evolution models with increasing levels of complexity based on the lithologic variability and base level history of the Jura Mountains of northern Switzerland. The models are consistent with lithology (and therewith erodibility) playing an important role in the transient evolution of the landscape. The results show that the erosion rate history at a location depends on the rock uplift and base level history, the range of erodibilities of the different lithologies, and the history of the surface geology downstream from the analyzed location. Near the model boundary, the history of erosion is dominated by the base level history. The transient wave of incision, however, is quite variable in the different model runs and depends on the geometric structure of lithology used. It is thus important to constrain the spatiotemporal erodibility patterns downstream of any given point of interest to understand the evolution of a landscape subject to variable base level in a quantitative framework.

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Quaternary glaciation history of northern Switzerland

Cited by 26 publications

References 16 publications

High magnitude and rapid incision from river capture: Rhine River, Switzerland

High magnitude and rapid incision from river capture: Rhine River, Switzerland

Late Quaternary climate and environmental reconstruction based on leaf wax analyses in the loess sequence of Möhlin, Switzerland

Lithologic Effects on Landscape Response to Base Level Changes: A Modeling Study in the Context of the Eastern Jura Mountains, Switzerland

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