Climate Change Glacier Sensitivity in the Eastern Alps
Abstract
Alpine glaciers react highly sensitive to climate variations and cause – due to fluctuations – geomorphological imprints in glacial and periglacial areas, e.g. glacial polish because of detersion, and distinct moraine sequences. Moraines at elevations below the modern ice margin mark stable glacier positions in the past and indicate wetter and colder climate conditions. Detailed mapping of these landforms allows putting spatial constraints on paleo-glacier positions. In addition, numerical ages, generated by applying cosmogenic surface exposure dating using 10Be, provide information with respect to depositional ages of moraines. With a combination of both approaches, geomorphological mapping and moraine dating, ice margins are reconstructed, thereby establishing a comprehensive geochronology of glacier advances and retreats at the Silvretta region covering the past 11.700 years, the Holocene. Results are implemented in a glacier model. The aim is to complement the traditional model calibration period, which is largely based on instrumental observations, with geological age data, in this way including the geological time scale in the model. In a next step, past glacier fluctuations will be reconstructed and interpreted towards a paleo-climatological context. This allows answering the question of environmental and climatological conditions necessary to produce mapped and dated moraines in the Silvretta region. If paleo-glacier positions can be modelled successfully, there are good chances to robustly estimate future glacier change implied by predicted climate scenarios, and to provide a framework to assess effects of glacier and climate change in the Silvretta region.
Publikationen
Holocene glacier change in the Silvretta Massif (Austrian Alps) constrained by a new Be-10 chronology, historical records and modern observations
Autoren: Braumann, SM; Schaefer, JM; Neuhuber, SM; Reitner, JM; Luthgens, C; Fiebig, M Jahr: 2020
Journal articles
The transition from the Late Glacial to the Early Holocene and its expression in moraine records of the Silvretta Massif
Autoren: Braumann, SM; Schaefer, JM; Neuhuber, SM; Fiebig, M Jahr: 2021
Conference & Workshop proceedings, paper, abstract
Project staff
Markus Fiebig
Univ.Prof. Dipl.Geol. Dr.rer.nat. Markus Fiebig
markus.fiebig@boku.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 47654-87212
BOKU Project Leader
01.08.2017 - 30.06.2022
Sandra Braumann
Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Sandra Braumann B.Sc.
sandra.braumann@boku.ac.at
Project Staff
01.08.2017 - 30.06.2022