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Late Pleistocene fluvial dynamics in the Hochrhein Valley and in the Upper Rhine Graben: chronological frame

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Abstract

During the Pleistocene, the Rhine glacier system acted as a major south–north erosion and transport medium from the Swiss Alps into the Upper Rhine Graben, which has been the main sediment sink forming low angle debris fans. Only some aggradation resulted in the formation of terraces. Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and radiocarbon dating have been applied to set up a more reliable chronological frame of Late Pleistocene and Holocene fluvial activity in the western Hochrhein Valley and in the southern part of the Upper Rhine Graben. The stratigraphically oldest deposits exposed, a braided-river facies, yielded OSL age estimates ranging from 59.6 ± 6.2 to 33.1 ± 3.0 ka. The data set does not enable to distinguish between a linear age increase triggered by a continuous autocyclical aggradation or two (or more) age clusters, for example around 35 ka and around 55 ka, triggered by climate change, including stadial and interstadial periods (sensu Dansgaard–Oeschger cycles). The braided river facies is discontinuously (hiatus) covered by coarse-grained gravel-rich sediments deposited most likely during a single event or short-time period of major melt water discharge postdating the Last Glacial Maximum. OSL age estimates of fluvial and aeolian sediments from the above coarse-grained sediment layer are between 16.4 ± 0.8 and 10.6 ± 0.5 ka, and make a correlation with the Late Glacial period very likely. The youngest fluvial aggradation period correlates to the beginning of the Little Ice Age, as confirmed by OSL and radiocarbon ages.

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Acknowledgments

This study was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) (HI 643/2-3), which is appreciated. Sabine Mogwitz, Petra Posimowski and Sonja Riemenschneider are thanked for their excellent technical support and, last but not least, Juliane Herrmann for the art-work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Leibniz Institute for Applied Geophysics (LIAG), Section S3: Geochronology and Isotope Hydrology, Stilleweg 2, 30655, Hannover, Germany

    Manfred Frechen & Astrid Techmer

  2. Regierungspräsidium Freiberg, Landesamt für Geologie, Rohstoffe und Bergbau Baden-Württemberg, Albertstr. 5, 79104, Freiburg, Germany

    Dietrich Ellwanger & Inge Neeb

  3. Institut für Angewandte Geowissenschaften, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Schnittspahnstr. 9, 64287, Darmstadt, Germany

    Matthias Hinderer & Jörg Lämmermann-Barthel

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  1. Manfred Frechen
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Correspondence to Manfred Frechen.

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Frechen, M., Ellwanger, D., Hinderer, M. et al. Late Pleistocene fluvial dynamics in the Hochrhein Valley and in the Upper Rhine Graben: chronological frame. Int J Earth Sci (Geol Rundsch) 99, 1955–1974 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-009-0482-9

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