The role of the Alps in an integrating Europe : Frameworks for prospective debat

2006 ◽  
Vol 94 (2) ◽  
pp. 21-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruggero Schleicher-Tappeser
Keyword(s):  
The Alps

scholarly journals Glaciation's topographic control on Holocene erosion at the eastern edge of the Alps

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 895-909 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean L. Dixon ◽  
Friedhelm von Blanckenburg ◽  
Kurt Stüwe ◽  
Marcus Christl
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Alps ◽  
European Alps ◽  
Glacial Erosion ◽  
Erosion Rates ◽  
The Alps ◽  
Glacial Processes ◽  
Cosmogenic 10Be ◽  
Topographic Forcing ◽  
Eastern Edge

Abstract. What is the influence of glacial processes in driving erosion and uplift across the European Alps? It has largely been argued that repeated erosion and glaciation sustain isostatic uplift and topography in a decaying orogen. But some parts of the Alps may still be actively uplifting via deep lithospheric processes. We add insight to this debate by isolating the role of post-glacial topographic forcing on erosion rates. To do this, we quantify the topographic signature of past glaciation on millennial-scale erosion rates in previously glaciated and unglaciated catchments at the easternmost edge of the Austrian Alps. Newly measured catchment-wide erosion rates, determined from cosmogenic 10Be in river-borne quartz, correlate with basin relief and mean slope. GIS-derived slope–elevation and slope–area distributions across catchments provide clear topographic indicators of the degree of glacial preconditioning, which further correlates with erosion rates. Erosion rates in the easternmost, non-glaciated basins range from 40 to 150 mm ky−1 and likely reflect underlying tectonic forcings in this region, which have previously been attributed to recent (post 5 Ma) uplift. By contrast, erosion rates in previously glaciated catchments range from 170 to 240 mm ky−1 and reflect the erosional response to local topographic preconditioning by repeated glaciations. Together, these data suggest that Holocene erosion across the Eastern Alps is strongly shaped by the local topography relict from previous glaciations. Broader, landscape-wide forcings, such as the widely debated deep mantle-driven or isostatically driven uplift, result in lesser controls on both topography and erosion rates in this region. Comparing our data to previously published erosion rates across the Alps, we show that post-glacial erosion rates vary across more than 2 orders of magnitude. This high variation in post-glacial erosion may reflect combined effects of direct tectonic and modern climatic forcings but is strongly overprinted by past glacial climate and its topographic legacy.

Zwischen Analphabetismus und Büchern, die „verrückt machen“. Ein Werkstattbericht aus dem Projekt „Reading in the Alps. Book Ownership in Tyrol 1750–1800“

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 59-73
Author(s):  
Michael Span
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Research Support ◽  
Religious Books ◽  
The Alps ◽  
Written Word ◽  
Support Fund ◽  
The University ◽  
Available Information ◽  
Academy Of Sciences

The residents of the historical region of Tirol had long played the role of various projection platforms. However, love for the written word was not a characteristic commonly attributed to them — on the contrary: “It is impossible for the insights of the latter to attract a favorable opinion if one considers that often in large villages hardly anyone can read and write, and those who can do it very poorly; and yet these are exercises enabling people to shape their minds.”That is why the project “Reading in the Alps. Book Ownership in Tyrol 1750–1800” carried out at the University of Innsbruck and the Austrian Center for Digital Humanities and Cultural Heritage of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW), and financed by the FWF (Research Support Fund) and the Tiroler Matching Fund, seeks to explore the historical reading customs of people living in the Alps. Drawing on inventories (usually probate inventories), we examine — as has already been done many times with regard to regions under Protestant-Pietist influence — private book collections in the Catholic-dominated Alps. The present article is a report on the main directions of the project as well as its first results.Starting from Joseph Rohrer’s 1796 diagnosis that the rural population of Tyrol in the eighteenth century was largely illiterate, we examine the available information about book resources from that era on the basis of an analysis of over 1500 inventories, inheritance proceedings, purchase and tenancy contracts etc. They suggest that people read quite a lot. However, an important matter is the kind of books preferred by readers at the time. It turns out that they were primarily widely popular religious books. It was mainly the “bestsellers of Catholic edifying literature”, which could be found in households in Bruneck in the South Tyrolean Puster Valley and its surroundings.

Schistes lustrés from Corsica to Hungary : back to the original sediments and tentative dating of partly azoic metasediments

2003 ◽  
Vol 174 (3) ◽  
pp. 197-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcel Lemoine
Keyword(s):  
Late Cretaceous ◽  
Deep Sea ◽  
Black Shales ◽  
Continental Margins ◽  
Long Time ◽  
The Alps ◽  
Mass Flow Deposits ◽  
Reliable Marker ◽  
Early Late

Abstract The Alpine and Corsican Schistes lustrés (SL) are nearly azoic Jurassic-Cretaceous metasediments often associated with ophiolites. They are derived from both the vanished Valais (N-Penninic) and Piemont-Ligurian (S-Penninic) oceans and from their continental margins. Their age is generally poorly known. Because of fossils discovered by Alb. Heim and by S. Franchi at the beginning of the 20th century, they were believed for a long time to be mostly Liassic in age. We know now that the major part of the SL is Cretaceous. Deep-sea sediments, and particularly the SL, are made up of a hemipelagic-pelagic background (HPB) associated with detrital components of local or distant origin. The nature of the HPB, mostly conditioned by Tethyan and worldwide events, is of great help as an at least rough stratigraphic marker ; in contrast, detrital material is not a reliable marker because it may occur at different times in different places. The HPB exhibits several successive, 10 to 40 m.y. long episodes which are either predominantly argillaceous (A) or calcareous (C). During the deposition of the Juras-sic-Cretaceous SL, seven episodes can be distinguished : C1, calcareous Liassic ; A1, marly Upper Liassic ; C2, calcareous latest Liassic and early Dogger ; A2, shaly or radiolaritic late Dogger-early Malm ; C3, calcareous late Malm ; A3 shaly or marly early Cretaceous ; C4 calcareous late Cretaceous. They can be recognized, each one by its prevailing lithology, and all together by their succession in order from C1 to C4. Nearly all of these subdivisions are here and there dated by rare fossils, which allow for a rough dating of the numerous azoic SL series. As they exhibit very different lithologies, from pelagic calcareous oozes to Black Shales and various kinds of flysch and other mass flow deposits, the SL cannot be considered as a specific, well-defined facies : they are not characteristic for a particular stage of the geodynamic evolution of the Alps. Finally, a possible influence of worldwide events is suggested. First, the role of the depth of the CCD, governed by early late Jurassic and early late Cretaceous biotic recoveries. Secondly, the correlation with first order eustatic events : transgressions on platforms seem to be roughly coeval with A episodes in the deep sea, regressions with C episodes.

scholarly journals Pomiędzy analfabetyzmem a książkami, które „ogłupiają”. Sprawozdanie warsztatowe z projektu „Reading in the Alps. Book Ownership in Tyrol 1750–1800”

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 74-82
Author(s):  
Michael Span ◽  
Monika Witt
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Research Support ◽  
Religious Books ◽  
The Alps ◽  
Written Word ◽  
Support Fund ◽  
The University ◽  
Available Information ◽  
Academy Of Sciences

The residents of the historical region of Tirol had long played the role of various projection platforms. However, love for the written word was not a characteristic commonly attributed to them — on the contrary: “It is impossible for the insights of the latter to attract a favorable opinion if one considers that often in large villages hardly anyone can read and write, and those who can do it very poorly; and yet these are exercises enabling people to shape their minds.”That is why the project “Reading in the Alps. Book Ownership in Tyrol 1750–1800” carried out at the University of Innsbruck and the Austrian Center for Digital Humanities and Cultural Heritage of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW), and financed by the FWF (Research Support Fund) and the Tiroler Matching Fund, seeks to explore the historical reading customs of people living in the Alps. Drawing on inventories (usually probate inventories), we examine — as has already been done many times with regard to regions under Protestant-Pietist influence — private book collections in the Catholic-dominated Alps. The present article is a report on the main directions of the project as well as its first results.Starting from Joseph Rohrer’s 1796 diagnosis that the rural population of Tyrol in the eighteenth century was largely illiterate, we examine the available information about book resources from that era on the basis of an analysis of over 1500 inventories, inheritance proceedings, purchase and tenancy contracts etc. They suggest that people read quite a lot. However, an important matter is the kind of books preferred by readers at the time. It turns out that they were primarily widely popular religious books. It was mainly the “bestsellers of Catholic edifying literature”, which could be found in households in Bruneck in the South Tyrolean Puster Valley and its surroundings.

scholarly journals Debris cover and the thinning of Kennicott Glacier, Alaska, Part A:in situ mass balance measurements

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leif S. Anderson ◽  
Robert S. Anderson ◽  
Pascal Buri ◽  
William H. Armstrong
Keyword(s):  
Mass Balance ◽  
High Mountain ◽  
Glacier Surface ◽  
Ice Dynamics ◽  
Air Temperatures ◽  
High Resolution Imagery ◽  
Debris Cover ◽  
The Alps

Abstract. The mass balance of many Alaskan glaciers is perturbed by debris cover. Yet the effect of debris on glacier response to climate change in Alaska has largely been overlooked. In three companion papers we assess the role of debris, ice dynamics, and surface processes in thinning Kennicott Glacier. In Part A, we report in situ measurements from the glacier surface. In Part B, we develop a method to delineate ice cliffs using high-resolution imagery and produce distributed mass balance estimates. In Part C we explore feedbacks that contribute to glacier thinning. Here in Part A, we describe data collected in the summer of 2011. We measured debris thickness (109 locations), sub-debris melt (74), and ice cliff backwasting (60) data from the debris-covered tongue. We also measured air-temperature (3 locations) and internal-debris temperature (10). The mean debris thermal conductivity was 1.06 W (m C)−1, increasing non-linearly with debris thickness. Mean debris thicknesses increase toward the terminus and margin where surface velocities are low. Despite the relatively high air temperatures above thick debris, the melt-insulating effect of debris dominates. Sub-debris melt rates ranged from 6.5 cm d−1 where debris is thin to 1.25 cm d−1 where debris is thick near the terminus. Ice cliff backwasting rates varied from 3 to 14 cm d−1 with a mean of 7.1 cm d−1 and tended to increase as elevation declined and debris thickness increased. Ice cliff backwasting rates are similar to those measured on debris-covered glaciers in High Mountain Asia and the Alps.

scholarly journals Loess caves of Austria – a preview

2013 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
pp. 65-72
Author(s):  
Rudolph Pavuza ◽  
Lukas Plan
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
The Other ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Mountain Range ◽  
Climatic Parameters ◽  
Animal Burrows ◽  
Styrian Basin ◽  
Human Interventions ◽  
The Alps

Loess caves account for a negligible amount of Austria's caves only – despite the fact that the areas covered by loess and loess-loam comprise several thousand square kilometres. Loess can be found in the northern and eastern foreland of the Alpine Mountain Range as well as in the Styrian Basin south of the Alps. Only a handful of caves have been mapped so far, concentrated at a few spots. This eye-catching fact documents a certain lack of exploration rather than a general lack of loess caves. According to Striebel (2005) and others most loess caves are formed by piping and gully erosion, initiated by inhomogeneities like disintegrating roots and animal burrows where the infiltrating water causes fast-growing pipe structures, subsequently enlarging to caves that can be entered by cavers.The rate of cave evolution is tremendous. In several cases – so far investigated – the earliest onset of cave formation lies within the early 20th Century. This can be dated as the required gradient was man-made at that time. On the other hand distinctive alterations of the caves took place within 30 years. This can be documented strikingly by comparing old and new cave maps. The crucial points – from a quantitative point of view – for the formation of loess caves are still under fundamental discussion as there are severe differences in local climatic parameters – some of the areas belong to the driest in Austria – lithologies, gradients and human interventions. Furthermore, the role of dissolution of calcitic components enhancing the subsequent erosion remains ambiguous.

scholarly journals Glaciation's topographic control on Holocene erosion at the eastern edge of the Alps

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean L. Dixon ◽  
Friedhelm von Blanckenburg ◽  
Kurt Stüwe ◽  
Marcus Cristl
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Alps ◽  
European Alps ◽  
Glacial Erosion ◽  
Erosion Rates ◽  
The Alps ◽  
Glacial Processes ◽  
Cosmogenic 10Be ◽  
Topographic Forcing ◽  
Eastern Edge

Abstract. What is the influence of glacial processes in driving erosion and uplift across the European Alps? It has largely been argued that repeated erosion through glaciation sustains isostatic uplift and topography in a decaying orogen. But, some insist that the Alps are an orogen still actively uplifting (e.g., Hergarten et al., 2010). We add insight to this debate by isolating the role of post-glacial topographic forcing on erosion rates. To do this, we quantify the topographic signature of past glaciation on millennial scale erosion rates in previously glaciated and unglaciated catchments at the easternmost edge of the Austrian Alps. Newly measured catchment-wide erosion rates, determined from cosmogenic 10Be in river-borne quartz, correlate with basin relief and mean slope. GIS-derived slope-elevation and slope-area distributions across catchments provide clear topographic indicators of the degree of glacial preconditioning, which further correlates with erosion rates. Erosion rates in the eastern-most, non-glaciated basins range from 40 to 150 mm/ky and likely reflect underlying tectonic forcings in this region, which have previously been attributed to recent (post 5 Ma) uplift (Legrain et al., 2015). By contrast, erosion rates in previously glaciated catchments range from 170 to 240 mm/ky and reflect the erosional response to local topographic preconditioning by repeated glaciations. Together, these data suggest that Holocene erosion across the Eastern Alps is strongly shaped by the local topography relict from previous glaciations. Broader, landscape-wide forcings, such as the widely debated deep mantle-driven or isostatically-driven uplift, result in lesser controls on both topography and erosion rates in this region. Comparing our data to previously published erosion rates across the Alps, we show that post-glacial erosion rates vary across more than two orders of magnitude with poor topographic indicators of controls. This high variation in post-glacial erosion may reflect combined effects of direct tectonic and modern climatic forcings, but is strongly overprinted by past glacial climate and its topographic legacy.

Modeling large dust deposition events to alpine snow and their impacts: the role of model resolution

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Foteini Baladima ◽  
Jennie Thomas ◽  
Marie Dumont ◽  
Didier Voisin ◽  
Clementine Junquas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Horizontal Resolution ◽  
Added Value ◽  
Model Resolution ◽  
Dust Deposition ◽  
Mountain Regions ◽  
Mountain Meteorology ◽  
The Alps

<div>Mineral dust and black carbon (BC) constitute the most important aerosols present in the atmosphere and cryosphere and have well known potential effects on regional and global climate. Upon their deposition they can impact snow albedo, snowpack evolution and timing of snow-melt. However, capturing BC and dust deposition events in mountain regions is currently a challenge due to the complexity of aerosol-cloud interactions and the specifics of mountain meteorological systems, which are difficult to represent in large scale models. Here, we use a case study of dust deposition, between 30 March and 5 April 2018, when a significant dust deposition event was observed within the seasonal snowpack at the Col du Lautaret in the French Alps. This comes in addition to the background BC deposition that occurred during the same period. Specifically, we investigate the role of model resolution in capturing both mountain meteorology, precipitation, and the resulting model predicted dust and BC deposition. For this, the meteorological-chemical model WRF-Chem is used with three nested domains including the primary dust emissions region in Africa (low resolution domain), a second domain that includes Europe, and a third high resolution domain over the Alps. We compare WRF-Chem predicted aerosol and meteorological properties (at different model resolution) with in-situ, remote sensing, and reanalysis products to validate the model and quantify the added value of high resolution modelling within the Alps. We conclude that predicted mountain meteorology including precipitation is significantly better when using the high resolution configuration (3 x 3 km horizontal resolution domain). Additionally, this improved meteorology predicted by the model has significant impacts on predicted dust deposition and BC. The better representation of the mountain meteorology when the resolution becomes finer leads to improved model predicted dust and BC deposition to alpine snow. Implications for this, including improved resolution within models that consider the full aerosol lifecycle in the atmosphere and in snow covered mountain regions is discussed.</div>

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