{"title":"Hydrogeology of alpine lakes in the Northern Calcareous Alps: a comparative study on the role of groundwater in Filblingsee and Eibensee","authors":"S. Hilberg, Florian Sändler, Florian Fürlinger","doi":"10.17738/ajes.2022.0010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17738/ajes.2022.0010","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In the Northern Calcareous Alps (NCA) there are countless small lakes with small orographic catchments that are often located only slightly below the respective summit regions. On the one hand, the lakes are located in karstable aquifers and their existence is likely to be related to karstification. Then, they are expected to be directly connected to the karst water body. These lakes are classified as karst lakes. On the other hand, the alpine environment is also influenced by glacial processes and lakes might be related to glacial erosion and deposition. For these glacial lakes, the share of groundwater inflow and outflow is regarded as subordinate even within high permeable karst lithologies. Here we compare two alpine lakes of potentially different origin in the NCA in Salzburg with the aim to provide a basis for an aerial survey of the numerous small alpine lakes in the NCA region and their characterization using the guiding parameters elaborated here. We consider (a) the lake geometry, (b) potential inflow and outflow systems, and (c) physicochemical parameters and hydrochemistry of the Filblingsee and the Eibensee, both located in the Fuschlsee region. Filblingsee was initially considered as a typical karst lake and Eibensee as a moraine-dammed glacial lake. Some clear differences arise in lake geometry, which in the karst lake shows a nearly round surface and concentric depth profile, while the glacial lake is elongated in the direction of glacier flow and has the deepest areas just upstream of the moraine dam. Both lakes show very little to no surficial inflow. Inflow and outflow occur in groundwater in both cases but are not directly tied to a highly permeable karst system. The depth profiles of the field parameters of the two lakes differ only slightly and show a dominant groundwater inflow in mid-depth regions but no flow through at the lake bottom. Water chemistry in both lakes and their potential outflows correspond to the respective aquifer in terms of solution load. Filblingsee can be characterized as a hanging lake in a secondarily sealed doline, Eibensee lies in a glacially excavated depression sealed by glacial sediments. While the inflow and outflow conditions and the hydrochemistry of both lakes are very similar, the lake geometry is a clear distinguishing feature that can be attributed to the different genesis of the two lakes. This can therefore be used as a guiding parameter for the classification of the numerous small alpine lakes in the NCA.","PeriodicalId":49319,"journal":{"name":"Austrian Journal of Earth Sciences","volume":"115 1","pages":"199 - 212"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41975299","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The detachment mechanism of the rockslide causing the Chamoli February 7th, 2021 debris flow disaster","authors":"R. Poisel, B. Grasemann","doi":"10.17738/ajes.2022.0009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17738/ajes.2022.0009","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract On February 7th, 2021, a rockslide of about 20 Mio m³ detached in a height of 5600 m asl. from the northern flank of Mount Ronti (Chamoli district, Uttarakhand state, India), turned into a rock mass fall and produced a debris flow. When the rock mass hit the Ronti Gad valley after a fall height of 1800 m the rock mass mixed with melting dead ice together with snow and ice avalanche material of previous debris flows. The debris flow destroyed hydroelectric infrastructure between 10 - 20 km down the valley killing 204 people either working at or visiting the power plants. By combining remote sensing, structural geology and kinematics/mechanical analysis of the rockslide, we demonstrate that a 600 m wide and almost 800 m long block of quartzite, bordered laterally by two joints and a newly formed tension crack on the top detached from an underlying layer of biotite-rich paragneisses. Assuming full hydrostatic heads in both joints and in the tension crack as well as 75% of the full hydrostatic head in the lower boundary surface between quartzites and paragneisses, the rock block analysis yields a friction angle of 32° for both joints, which is a plausible value of the friction angle of joints in quartzites. The detachment of the block has been the result of the widening of the tension crack on top, of a progressive propagation of the lateral joints together with a catastrophic failure of the detachment plane at the border between quartzites and paragneisses. At the time of the failure, all discontinuities must have been almost completely filled with water raising the question, if the frequency of rockslides in the Himalayas is increasing as temperatures rise and permafrost is thawing due to climate change.","PeriodicalId":49319,"journal":{"name":"Austrian Journal of Earth Sciences","volume":"115 1","pages":"191 - 198"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45809355","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Stratigraphic architecture of a mixed clastic-carbonate succession and 87Sr/86Sr-based chronostratigraphy along the margin of a synorogenic extensional basin (Hochmoos Formation, upper Santonian, Northern Calcareous Alps)","authors":"Kevin Kearney, M. Wagreich, D. Sanders","doi":"10.17738/ajes.2022.0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17738/ajes.2022.0004","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The Gosau Group (Turonian to Ypresian) of the Eastern Alps is a synorogenic wedge-top succession that accumulated in active depocenters in an oblique-convergent plate tectonic setting. Due to high morphological differentiation of depocenters by tectonism, the Gosau Group displays a wide range of facies as well as marked facies heteropy and thickness variations over short lateral distances. In the area of the locations Gosau and Russbach, the Hochmoos Formation along the SE basin margin near Gosauschmied comprises coastal to shallow-marine deposits and small rudist bioconstructions and was investigated by way of field mapping, profile descriptions, microfacies analysis, isotope measurements and assessment of fossil content. Strontium isotope ratios (87Sr/86Sr) from 0.707485 (oldest) to 0.707549 (youngest) indicate a latest Santonian age, with the youngest parts of the Hochmoos Formation possibly extending into the Campanian. On the west side of the study area, the succession of lithologies and fossil content record transgression of a fan-delta to marginal-marine environment (lowstand to transgressive systems tract), followed by shallow neritic deposition (part of the transgressive systems tract) and, finally, by progradational stacking of limestone beds in the highstand systems tract, culminating in growth of rudist thickets in an inner shelf and partially protected ‘lagoonal’ milieu. Eventually, at the inception of the following falling stage systems tract, input of large clasts of Dachstein Limestone, quartz and chert record a recurrence of the subaqueous part of a fan-delta. On the east side of the study area, a preponderance of rudist-clastic limestones over a few rudist biostromes preserved in situ indicate a normal-marine environment punctuated by high-energy events, such as storms or tsunami. The scarcity of benthic foraminifera and the presence of only isolated specimens of colonial corals underscore a habitat with a calcarenitic substrate frequently shifted by currents. Several lines of evidence indicate that the western part of the study area was more proximal relative to the eastern one. With a maximum thickness of 68 m, the Hochmoos Formation at Gosauschmied is slightly thicker and more distal than outcrops located nearer to the basin margin and farther towards the SE (Schmiedsippl, Katzhofgraben), but significantly thinner than the nearly 300 m at Gosau Pass-Gschütt, or the thickness of 170 m observed in the area of Rigaus-Abtenau farther in the West. These thickness variations are interpreted as a result of extensional syndepositional tectonism. At Gosauschmied, the vertical arrangement of facies records a cycle of relative sea-level change that may have been tectonically enhanced.","PeriodicalId":49319,"journal":{"name":"Austrian Journal of Earth Sciences","volume":"115 1","pages":"74 - 99"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45163065","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Deformation of the Dachstein Limestone in the Dachstein thrust sheet (Eastern Alps, Austria)","authors":"O. Fernández, B. Grasemann, D. Sanders","doi":"10.17738/ajes.2022.0008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17738/ajes.2022.0008","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Deformation affecting the Upper Triassic Dachstein Limestone has been analyzed in the Dachstein thrust sheet, the uppermost thrust unit of the central Northern Calcareous Alps (Eastern Alps). Different scales of deformation are discussed, from kilometer-scale thrusting down to folds in the order of tens of meters to meters. Observations are based on both conventional outcrop observations and on digital fieldwork performed on drone-captured virtual outcrops and on GoogleMaps 3D terrain renderizations. The structures observed were formed at different times and document the following events: 1) Late Triassic syn-depositional instability and slumping; 2) Late Triassic syn-depositional growth of the Hallstatt diapir; 3) Late Triassic syn-depositional, salt-driven, extensional faulting; 4) Jurassic-age re-activation of extensional faults; 5) (presumably) Early Cretaceous shortening in both east-west and north-south directions; and 6) (presumably) Late Cretaceous extensional re-activation of faults. The structures and their origin have a bearing on the interpretation of the tectonic evolution of the Dachstein thrust sheet, highlighting the potential relevance of salt tectonics in controlling its structure.","PeriodicalId":49319,"journal":{"name":"Austrian Journal of Earth Sciences","volume":"115 1","pages":"167 - 190"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48008814","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
J. Nievoll, H. Fritz, D. Gallhofer, C. Hauzenberger, Michael Pfatschbacher, Bernadette Gritsch
{"title":"From shallow into deep sea: Sedimentary facies and U-Pb zircon ages in the early Paleozoic Noric Group at Veitsch (Eastern Greywacke Zone, Austria)","authors":"J. Nievoll, H. Fritz, D. Gallhofer, C. Hauzenberger, Michael Pfatschbacher, Bernadette Gritsch","doi":"10.17738/ajes.2022.0003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17738/ajes.2022.0003","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The low-grade metamorphic early Paleozoic basement of the Veitsch area presents a wide variety of sedimentary facies domains. The first domain consists of thick metadacites of Middle Ordovician age (Blasseneck Porphyroid), overlain by fine-grained metaclastics of the Rad Formation (Late Ordovician to Silurian) and Devonian limestones and calcitic marbles (Kaiserstein and Kaskögerl Formation, respectively). Rhyolitic to dacitic magmatism initiated at ca. 479 Ma (LAMC-ICP-MS U-Pb zircon data) and lasted until ca. 444 Ma. The second domain comprises metaclastics of the Stocker Formation (Early Ordovician to Silurian), characterized by thin volcanics and volcaniclastics of andesitic and rhyolitic composition. U-Pb zircon data give Middle Ordovician age (463 Ma – 468 Ma). The third domain, exposed northwest of Veitsch, consists of thick metadacites (Blasseneck Porphyroid, ca. 478 Ma), followed by (siliceous) phyllites which grade into turbiditic metasediments (Sommerauer Formation, Late Ordovician to Devonian?). Clastic sediments of the Stocker and Sommerauer Formations were sourced from northern Gondwana showing a prominent Pan-African detrital zircon peak at ca. 640 Ma. Middle to Upper Ordovician volcanics (ca. 462 Ma – 448 Ma) represent the second source. Tectonic reconstruction leads us to the arrangement of three facies domains. A shallow marine shelf facies is located in the present days southwest. A marginal basin with volcanic islands on a sloping continent, and a deep-water environment containing turbidites are situated further to the northwest. The present arrangement of these facies domains is explained by eo-Alpine and Variscan thrust tectonics.","PeriodicalId":49319,"journal":{"name":"Austrian Journal of Earth Sciences","volume":"115 1","pages":"41 - 73"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44239551","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Metamorphic tourmaline and its petrogenetic significance from the Maramureș Mountains (East Carpathians, Romania)","authors":"E. Moşonyi, F. Forray","doi":"10.17738/ajes.2022.0007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17738/ajes.2022.0007","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This study describes mineralogical and crystallochemical characteristics of metamorphic tourmalines from an Alpine shear zone in a Variscan metamorphic rock sequence from the Maramures region in the northern part of the East Carpathians. We use this mineral to unravel aspects of the evolution of the tourmaline bearing host rocks and compare the crystallo-chemical characteristics to other tourmalines from Alps. Petrographic and microstructural observations, as well as electron microprobe analyses on several zoned tourmalines and associated minerals (mica, feldspar) from mylonitic schist of the Rebra terrane (Maramureș Mountains), indicate that the pre-kinematic tourmalines belong to the alkali group (Na dominant), hydroxyl dominated on the crystallographic W-site and can be assigned to the species dravite and schorl. The tourmaline-bearing rocks have a metasedimentary protolith. The analysed porphyroblasts, rotated by simple shear, show corroded rim that are interpreted to have formed due to pressure release. Three main compositional zones were evidenced on a tourmaline porphyroblast: a core zone and two asymmetrically arranged inclusion-poor/free rims, all formed in pre-alpine prograde metamorphic conditions. Based on mineral microstructural relations and geothermobarometry (tourmaline–muscovite, tourmaline–plagioclase geothermometry and phengite geobarometry), the metamorphic peak conditions of the investigated Rebra terrane were evaluated to have been at a temperature of ca. 590 to 620 ± 22 °C and Pmin = 5.5 - 6.0 ± 0.5 kbar. By observing dynamically recrystallized microstructures in quartz and feldspar in the shear zone a temperature of 350 - 400 °C was estimated and the quartz paleopiezometry outlined a differential stress of about 1.5 kbar that implied only minor chemical change in tourmaline outer zone.","PeriodicalId":49319,"journal":{"name":"Austrian Journal of Earth Sciences","volume":"115 1","pages":"146 - 166"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42985846","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Barbara Hofbauer, S. Viehmann, S. Gier, S. Bernasconi, P. Meister
{"title":"Microfacies and C/O-isotopes in lacustrine dolomites reflect variable environmental conditions in the Germanic Basin (Arnstadt Formation, Upper Triassic)","authors":"Barbara Hofbauer, S. Viehmann, S. Gier, S. Bernasconi, P. Meister","doi":"10.17738/ajes.2021.0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17738/ajes.2021.0004","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The conditions in ancient evaporative environments conducive to authigenic carbonate (especially dolomite [CaMg(CO3)2]) formation are still insufficiently understood. Insights from microfacies analysis can help to constrain the conditions in these environments. We provide a brief overview of the microfacies association and carbon and oxygen isotope compositions of dolomite beds intercalated in a claystone-rich succession from the Norian Arnstadt Formation in Thuringia and Lower Saxony (Germany) in order to gain further insight into the depositional conditions and processes leading to the formation of authigenic Mg/Ca-carbonates in the Germanic Basin. The studied intervals are ascribed to lacustrine, partially evaporitic conditions, while the sedimentary structures were not obliterated by recrystallization. The microfacies of the dolomites is diverse, showing homogeneous micrite, mudclasts, lamination, and peloidal structures, and reflects a shallow to deeper water (below wave base) and episodically evaporative environment. The dolomites exhibit oxygen isotope values (δ18O) in the range from −5.21 to −0.36‰ VPDB and, hence, only represent a weak meteoric influence, suggesting that the authigenic carbonate generally formed under evaporative conditions. Carbon isotope values (δ13C) in the range of −4.28 to 1.39‰ VPDB indicate a small contribution of remineralized organic carbon, mainly in sediments that were presumably deposited in deeper water or under brackish conditions. Sedimentary structures, such as lamination with graded silt layers, reworked mudclasts embedded in a fine dolomicrite matrix, and peloids showing plastic deformation, indicate that the sediment was still unlithified. These observations would be consistent with an authigenic formation of Mg/Ca-carbonates directly from the lake water, and their deposition under variable conditions in a large playa-lake/perennial lake system.","PeriodicalId":49319,"journal":{"name":"Austrian Journal of Earth Sciences","volume":"114 1","pages":"66 - 87"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44329508","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
H. Häusler, G. Kovacs, E. Wild, P. Steier, B. Heil
{"title":"The Osli Formation – a Holocene lithostratigraphic unit in the Danube/Kisalföld Basin, eastern Austria and northwestern Hungary","authors":"H. Häusler, G. Kovacs, E. Wild, P. Steier, B. Heil","doi":"10.17738/ajes.2021.0005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17738/ajes.2021.0005","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In the course of field investigations and formalisation of Quaternary deposits in the Lake Neusiedl/Seewinkel and Hanság area the Osli Formation is designated as new formal lithostratigraphic unit. It covers an area of ~200 square kilometres and, in historic times, wetlands such as swamps and peat bogs extended from Waasen in the south-eastern Seewinkel Plain to the Hanság (Kisalföld). Due to missing stratigraphic data this formation cannot be formally divided into two members but into a lower and upper section instead. The lower section of the Osli Formation was cored in the Seewinkel Plain and consists of lacustrine deposits of up to 10 metres in thickness that were presumably deposited during Preboreal. Despite the draining of the Hanság over centuries and decades of peat mining, the upper section of the Osli Formation nowadays still consists of an at least one-meter-thick succession of peat intercalated with fluvio-lacustrine deposits. The investigated peat layers at Tétényi-Hany (~5 km north of Osli) were 14C-dated, ranging in age from ~2,400 BC to 1,500 AD. 14C ages of peat profiles at Osli-Tőzegbánya (Fövenyes-tó), located ~2,5 km northeast of Osli, even date back to ~4,000 BC. Hence the 10 to 12 m thick Osli Formation can be dated as Holocene. It is underlain by Quaternary deposits of the Illmitz Formation.","PeriodicalId":49319,"journal":{"name":"Austrian Journal of Earth Sciences","volume":"114 1","pages":"87 - 97"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48610314","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
F. Melcher, Sonja Schwabl, Peter Onuk, T. Meisel, T. Aiglsperger, J. Proenza
{"title":"The Haidbach deposit in the Central Tauern Window, Eastern Alps, Austria: a metamorphosed orthomagmatic Ni-Cu-Co-PGE mineralization in the Polymetallic Ore District Venediger Nappe System – Hollersbach Complex","authors":"F. Melcher, Sonja Schwabl, Peter Onuk, T. Meisel, T. Aiglsperger, J. Proenza","doi":"10.17738/ajes.2021.0001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17738/ajes.2021.0001","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Cu-Ni-Co-PGE mineralization occurs at Haidbachgraben in the Early Palaeozoic, Subpenninic Hollersbach Complex of the Central Tauern Window, Austria. Massive sulfide ore formed from sulfide melt segregated from silicate melt during intrusion of pyroxenite into magmatic rocks formed in an MORB-type environment. Relics of magmatic minerals include chromian spinel and polyphase sulfide droplets composed of pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite and pentlandite preserved in recrystallized pyrite. Both ore and host rocks were multiply deformed and metamorphosed, leading to hornblendite carrying the ore, enveloped by chlorite-epidote schist. Conditions of – likely Variscan – amphibolite facies metamorphism are documented by relict pargasitic cores in hornblende and actinolite-tremolite, and by ternary sulfarsenide compositions in the Co-Ni-Fe solid solution series that are the most common accessory minerals found in the sulfide ore. Pyrrhotite, pentlandite, chalcopyrite and pyrite are the major sulfide minerals. Chalcopyrite is Cd-rich and retains a high-temperature magmatic signature. High Co/Sb and moderate Se/As ratios in pyrite also point to a magmatic environment of mineralization. The accessory mineral assemblage of small grain size (mostly <10 µm) comprises native Au-Ag alloy and petzite as Au-Ag minerals, sperrylite, a variety of Pd tellurides and bismuthotellurides with elevated Sb, irarsite, and Re sulfides such as tarkianite and a Pb-Re sulfide. In addition, minor molybdenite, bournonite, scheelite and selenides have been identified. Two precious metal assemblages are present in individual samples: (1) hessite associated with Pd tellurides, often accompanied by sphalerite and chalcopyrite; (2) tarkianite forming euhedral inclusions in pyrite. Sperrylite and Au-Ag native alloys are present throughout and were also detected in silicate matrix. Most of the precious metal-bearing phases must have formed during recrystallization of base metal sulfides after the magmatic, and probably during later metamorphic events terminating in the Neoalpine Tauern crystallization.","PeriodicalId":49319,"journal":{"name":"Austrian Journal of Earth Sciences","volume":"114 1","pages":"1 - 26"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43386671","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Relic Landscapes of the Grazer Bergland: Revisiting the Piedmonttreppen Debate","authors":"K. Stüwe, Konstantin Hohmann","doi":"10.17738/ajes.2021.0003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17738/ajes.2021.0003","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The Grazer Bergland is a mountainous region at the eastern end of the Alps that escaped glacial erosion in the Pleistocene and thus preserves low-relief landforms that are relics of the earlier uplift history. These relic landforms may reflect a Piedmonttreppe that formed during a series of stages of a wide-reaching Pliocene uplift event that interacts with the landscape evolution, but this model is not uniquely accepted for the region. In order to test this model and for a future better correlation of the paleosurfaces with those mapped in other regions, it is important to benchmark these relic landforms. We do so by presenting a geomorphic map of the Bergland region over some 600 km2. We describe the well-known levels Stadelberg/Zahrerberg- (at 540 – 700 m a.s.l.), Kalkleiten/Hochstraden- (at 700 – 850 m a.s.l.), Trahütten- (at 950 – 1100 m a.s.l.), Hubenhalt- (at 1200 m a.s.l.), as well as Wolschenegg- and Kor- (at 1200-1720 m a.s.l.) levels and correlate their distribution in space and time. Fluvial channels between segments of the relic surfaces have knickpoints that correlate with the planation surfaces, which is in strong support of the Piedmonttreppe model. Our analysis results in a model that interprets the course of the Mur river to be the product of a river piracy event near Peggau at the time of the planation of the Trahütten level (about 4 Ma), diverting the paleo-Mur from an eastwards course along the Mürz valley in direction Vienna, towards Graz. Thereafter, the Mur remained antecedent with respect to the uplift of the surrounding massifs resulting in massive base level drop for many tributaries, like the Mixnitzbach or Rötschbach. The resulting knickpoints have since migrated upstream to cause successive minor river capture events, for example the Rötschbach capture at Kesselfall. We also show that the presence of lower levels in the Passail Basin is best interpreted in terms of the more efficient erosion of basin sediments that filled a Miocene half graben north of the Schöckl ridge and analyze the two major drainages of the region, the Raab and the Weizbach.","PeriodicalId":49319,"journal":{"name":"Austrian Journal of Earth Sciences","volume":"114 1","pages":"46 - 65"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44697958","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}