Age of the Most Extensive Glaciation in the Alps

Dieleman, Catharina; Christl, Marcus; Vockenhuber, Christof; Gautschi, Philip; Graf, Hans Rudolf; Akçar, Naki (2022). Age of the Most Extensive Glaciation in the Alps. Geosciences, 12(1), p. 39. MDPI 10.3390/geosciences12010039

[img]
Preview
Text
geosciences-12-00039-v2.pdf - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons: Attribution (CC-BY).

Download (14MB) | Preview

Previous research suggested that the Alpine glaciers of the Northern Swiss Foreland reached their maximum extensive position during the Middle Pleistocene. Relict tills and glaciofluvial deposits, attributed to the Most Extensive Glaciation (MEG), have been found only beyond the extents of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Traditionally, these sediments have been correlated to the Riss glaciation sensu Penck and Brückner and have been morphostratigraphically classified as the Higher Terrace (HT) deposits. The age of the MEG glaciation was originally proposed to be intermediate to the Brunhes/Matuyama transition (780 ka) and the Marine Isotope Stage 6 (191 ka). In this study, we focused on the glacial deposits in Möhlin (Canton of Aargau, Switzerland), in order to constrain the age of the MEG. The sediments from these deposits were analyzed to determine the provenance and depositional environments. We applied isochron-burial dating, with cosmogenic 10Be and 26Al, to the till layer in the Bünten gravel pit near Möhlin. Our results indicate that a glacier of Alpine origin reached its most extensive position during the Middle Pleistocene (500 ± 100 ka). The age of the MEG thus appears to be synchronous with the most extensive glaciations in the northern hemisphere.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

08 Faculty of Science > Institute of Geological Sciences

UniBE Contributor:

Dieleman, Catharina Jorinna, Akçar, Naki

Subjects:

500 Science > 550 Earth sciences & geology

ISSN:

2076-3263

Publisher:

MDPI

Language:

English

Submitter:

Naki Akçar

Date Deposited:

10 Mar 2022 11:02

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 16:13

Publisher DOI:

10.3390/geosciences12010039

BORIS DOI:

10.48350/166694

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/166694

Actions (login required)

Edit item Edit item
Provide Feedback