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Significant increase in relief of the European Alps during mid-Pleistocene glaciations

Nature Geoscience volume 4, pages 688–692 (2011)Cite this article

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Abstract

Some of Earth’s greatest relief occurs where glacial processes act on mountain topography1,2. This dramatic landscape is thought to be an imprint of Pleistocene glaciations3,4. However, whether the net effect of glacial erosion on mountains is to increase5,6,7 or decrease8,9,10 relief remains disputed. It has been suggested that in the European Alps, the onset of widespread glaciation since the mid-Pleistocene climate transition11 led to the growth of large, long-lived and strongly erosive alpine glaciers12,13 that profoundly influenced topography14. Here we use 4He/3He thermochronometry15 and thermal-kinematic models to show that the Rhône Valley in Switzerland deepened by about 1–1.5 km over the past one million years. Our results indicate that while the valley was incised and back-cut, high-altitude areas were preserved from erosion. We find an approximately two-fold increase in both local topographic relief and valley concavity, which occurred around the time of the mid-Pleistocene transition. Our results support the proposed link12,13,14 between the onset of efficient glacial erosion in the European Alps and the transition to longer, colder glacial periods at the middle of the Pleistocene epoch.

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Figure 1: Topography, sample locations and AHe age–elevation relationships.
Figure 2: 4He/3He thermochronometry of SIO samples.
Figure 3: Modelled cooling paths for VIS samples.
Figure 4: Predicted cooling paths for different exhumation/relief scenarios and inferred Rhône valley evolution.

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Acknowledgements

We thank J-D. Champagnac for field assistance, F. Cœur, B. Lum and F. Senebier for help during sample preparation. The staff of the Caltech Noble Gas Laboratory is acknowledged for conducting (U–Th–Sm)/He analyses. We thank G. Balco for development of the 4He/3He thermochronometry search algorithm, F. Chirouze and R. Delunel for fruitful discussions. M. Brandon and S. Brocklehurst provided constructive reviews. Financial support for this work was provided by the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR-08-BLAN-0303-01 grant to P.A.vd.B.), European Science Foundation Topo-Europe Eurocores programme, France-Berkeley Fund, US National Science Foundation (EAR-0720225 grant to D.L.S.) and the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut des Sciences de la Terre, Université Joseph Fourier, CNRS, BP 53, F-38041 Grenoble, France

    Pierre G. Valla & Peter A. van der Beek

  2. Berkeley Geochronology Center, 2455 Ridge Road, Berkeley, California 94709, USA

    David L. Shuster

  3. Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA

    David L. Shuster

Authors
  1. Pierre G. Valla
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Contributions

P.G.V. conducted fieldwork, processed samples and performed numerical modelling; P.G.V. and D.L.S. conducted 4He/3He analyses; all authors contributed equally to the design of the study and writing of the paper.

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Correspondence to Pierre G. Valla.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Valla, P., Shuster, D. & van der Beek, P. Significant increase in relief of the European Alps during mid-Pleistocene glaciations. Nature Geosci 4, 688–692 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1242

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