A 2000 year long seasonal record of floods in the southern European Alps

Wirth, Stefanie B.; Gilli, Adrian; Simonneau, Anaëlle; Ariztegui, Daniel; Vannière, Boris; Glur, Lukas; Chapron, Emmanuel; Magny, Michel; Anselmetti, Flavio (2013). A 2000 year long seasonal record of floods in the southern European Alps. Geophysical Research Letters, 40(15), pp. 4025-4029. American Geophysical Union 10.1002/grl.50741

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Knowledge of past natural flood variability and controlling climate factors is of high value since it can be useful to refine projections of the future flood behavior under climate warming. In this context, we present a seasonally resolved 2000 year long flood frequency and intensity reconstruction from the southern Alpine slope (North Italy) using annually laminated (varved) lake sediments. Floods occurred predominantly during summer and autumn, whereas winter and spring events were rare. The all-season flood frequency and, particularly, the occurrence of summer events increased during solar minima, suggesting solar-induced circulation changes resembling negative conditions of the North Atlantic Oscillation as controlling atmospheric mechanism. Furthermore, the most extreme autumn events occurred during a period of warm Mediterranean sea surface temperature. Interpreting these results in regard to present climate change, our data set proposes for a warming scenario, a decrease in summer floods, but an increase in the intensity of autumn floods at the South-Alpine slope.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

10 Strategic Research Centers > Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research (OCCR)
08 Faculty of Science > Institute of Geological Sciences
08 Faculty of Science > Institute of Geological Sciences > Quaternary Geology
08 Faculty of Science > Institute of Geological Sciences > Rock-Water Interaction

UniBE Contributor:

Anselmetti, Flavio

Subjects:

500 Science > 550 Earth sciences & geology

ISSN:

0094-8276

Publisher:

American Geophysical Union

Language:

English

Submitter:

Flavio Anselmetti

Date Deposited:

08 Aug 2014 17:19

Last Modified:

25 Jan 2023 10:05

Publisher DOI:

10.1002/grl.50741

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.45613

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/45613

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