Spatial Distribution of modern Rates of Denudation from Sediment Yields throughout the Alps

Applicants: Prof. Dr. Matthias Hinderer, Prof. Dr. Friedhelm v. Blanckenburg (GFZ Potsdam)

Funding: DFG via EUCORES

Persons in Charge: Martin Kastowski

Duration: 2009 – 2011

Summary

The Alps offer excellent opportunities to study the interplay between elevation and erosion of a mountain range. The European research group TOPOAlps, in which around 20 scientists from Switzerland, Austria, France, Germany, Great Britain and Italy are united, is therefore investigating the topographical history of the Alps and would like to clarify the question of which processes are responsible for the past and present topography.

In this subproject, the spatial distribution of recent denudation rates is investigated with the help of mass load measurements in rivers and the quantification of lake deposits. Denudation is a collective term for the extensive removal of the surface. Direct measurements of the sediment load are only available for the last 30 years, while lake sediments provide information for the time since the last glacial period. Together with calculations of denudation rates from the concentration of cosmogenic nuclides in river sands of the Alps in Friedhelm v. Blanckenburg (GFZ), a detailed picture of modern denudation rates in the Alps can be created.

An analysis of the catchment area characteristics should provide information about which factors control the denudation rates and how they are related to crustal movements. This investigation will provide important information on how changes in the denudation behavior of the Alps change the morphology in the long term. Information that is important not least in the area of ​​geohazard assessment.