Chronological data for glacier advances in the European Alps between the Last Interglacial (Eemian) and the Holocene are summarised (115 to 11 ka). During this time glaciers were most extensive, extending tens of kilometres out onto the forelands, between 30 and 18 ka, that is, synchronous with the global ice volume maximum of Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 2. Evidence for ice expanding to just past the mountain front for an earlier major glacier advance comes from Swiss sites, where advances have been luminescence dated to MIS 5d (100 ka) and MIS 4 (70 ka). Up to now no such evidence has been found in the Eastern Alps. By 18 ka, more than 80% of the Late Wurmian ice volume had gone. Subsequently glaciers readvanced, reaching into the upper reaches of the main valleys during the Lateglacial Gschnitz stadial, which likely occurred around 17 ka, with final moraine stabilisation no later than 15.4 ka. The link of the Egesen stadial with the Younger Dryas climate deterioration is supported by exposure ages from four sites as well as minimum-limiting radiocarbon dates from bogs within former glacier tongue areas. Key questions on the spatial and temporal variability of ice extents throughout the last glacial cycle have yet to be answered. Copyright # 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

https://uibk.ac.at/geographie/personal/kerschner/ivyjqs2008.pdf

Chronology of the last glacial cycle in the

Chronological data for glacier advances in the European Alps between the Last Interglacial (Eemian) and the Holocene are summarised (115 to 11 ka). During this time glaciers were most extensive, extending tens of kilometres out onto the forelands, between 30 and 18 ka, that is, synchronous with the global ice volume maximum of Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 2. Evidence for ice expanding to just past the mountain front for an earlier major glacier advance comes from Swiss sites, where advances have been luminescence dated to MIS 5d (100 ka) and MIS 4 (70 ka). Up to now no such evidence has been found in the Eastern Alps. By 18 ka, more than 80% of the Late Wurmian ice volume had gone. Subsequently glaciers readvanced, reaching into the upper reaches of the main valleys during the Lateglacial Gschnitz stadial, which likely occurred around 17 ka, with final moraine stabilisation no later than 15.4 ka. The link of the Egesen stadial with the Younger Dryas climate deterioration is supported by exposure ages from four sites as well as minimum-limiting radiocarbon dates from bogs within former glacier tongue areas. Key questions on the spatial and temporal variability of ice extents throughout the last glacial cycle have yet to be answered. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

https://www.uibk.ac.at/geographie/personal/kerschner/ivyjqs2008.pdf

Chronology of the last glacial cycle in the European Alps

Quartz as a natural luminescence dosimeter

Paraglacial rock-slope stability

. Luminescence dating is a tool frequently used for age determination of Quaternary materials such as archaeological artefacts, volcanic deposits and a variety of sediments from different environmental settings. The present paper gives an overview of the physical basics of luminescence dating, the necessary procedures from sampling to age calculation, potential problems that may interfere with correct age calculation as well as procedures to identify and resolve those problems. Finally, a brief summary of the most common fields of application is given ranging from artefacts to the variety of different sediments suitable for luminescence dating.

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Luminescence dating: Basics, methods and applications

Overdeepened valleys and basins are commonly found below the present landscape surface in areas that were affected by Quaternary glaciations. Overdeepened troughs and their sedimentary fillings are important in applied geology, for example, for geotechnics of deep foundations and tunnelling, groundwater resource management, and radioactive waste disposal. This publication is an overview of the areal distribution and the geometry of overdeepened troughs in the Alps and their foreland, and summarises the present knowledge of the age and potential processes that may have caused deep erosion. It is shown that overdeepened features within the Alps concur mainly with tectonic structures and/or weak lithologies as well as with Pleistocene ice confluence and partly also diffluence situations. In the foreland, overdeepening is found as elongated buried valleys, mainly oriented in the direction of former ice flow, and glacially scoured basins in the ablation area of glaciers. Some buried deeply incised valleys were generated by fluvial down-cutting during the Messinian crisis but this mechanism of formation applies only for the southern side of the Alps. Lithostratigraphic records and dating evidence reveal that overdeepened valleys were repeatedly occupied and excavated by glaciers during past glaciations. However, the age of the original formation of (non-Messinian) overdeepened structures remains unknown. The mechanisms causing overdeepening also remain unidentified and it can only be speculated that pressurised meltwater played an important role in this context.

/pdf/distribution-geometry-age-and-origin-of-overdeepened-valleys-1xy4017rbm.pdf

Distribution, geometry, age and origin of overdeepened valleys and basins in the Alps and their foreland

Glacial dynamics at the beginning of Termination I in the Eastern Alps and their stratigraphic implications

Luminescence dating of proglacial sediments from the Eastern Alps

. Es wird ein Uberblick uber die in Osterreich verwendete Quartar-Stratigraphie gegeben. Die stratigraphische Gliederung der kartierbaren Sedimenteinheiten basiert teilweise auf Kriterien der Lithostratigraphie (lithologischer Eigenschaften) und jenen der Allostratigraphie (z.B. Diskonitinuitaten). Fur das Altpleistozan (2.58–0.78 Ma) fehlen bis jetzt Spuren einer Vergletscherung. Die wenigen und isolierten Sedimentvorkommen belegen fluviatile Akkumulation und Lossablagerung in der Umgebung der Flusse. Palaomagnetisch korrelierte Loss-Palaoboden – Sequenzen wie das Profil Stranzendorf mit der Gauss/Matuyama – Grenze bzw. Neogen/Quartar – Grenze dokumentieren in Ubereinstimmung mit den globalen δ18O Werten etwas warmere Bedingungen als im Mittelpleistozan (0.78–0.13 Ma). Vier Grosvergletscherungen (Gunz, Mindel, Ris und Wurm) sind fur Mittelpleistozan und Jungpleistozan belegt. Diese sind mit Sedimenten aus der Vorstosphase uberlagert von Grundmorane, Endmoranen im Alpenvorland und damit verknupfte Terrassenschuttungen sowie Lossakkumulation dokumentiert. Daraus ist die klimagesteuerte Sedimentation im Zusammenhang mit dem Vorstos der Gletscher, der Ausbreitung des Permafrostes und der Frostschuttbildung bis ins Vorland erkennbar. Die jungsten Grosvergletscherungen Ris und Wurm werden aufgrund geochronologischer Daten mit den Marinen Isotopenstufen (MIS) 6 und 2 korreliert. Fur Gunz und Mindel scheint eine Gleichzeitigkeit mit den Phasen massiver globaler Klimaverschlechterung wahrend MIS 16 und MIS 12 plausibel. Dokumente fur die schwacheren Glaziale wurden bisher nur in Lossprofilen (z.B. Krems Schiesstatte) gefunden.

/pdf/an-outline-of-the-quaternary-stratigraphy-of-austria-3hq34bd46b.pdf

Jürgen M. Reitner

Papers

Distribution, geometry, age and origin of overdeepened valleys and basins in the Alps and their foreland

Glacial dynamics at the beginning of Termination I in the Eastern Alps and their stratigraphic implications

Luminescence dating of proglacial sediments from the Eastern Alps

An Outline of the Quaternary Stratigraphy of Austria

Late Pleistocene climate change and landscape dynamics in the Eastern Alps: the inner-alpine Unterangerberg record (Austria)