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Combination of Numerical Dating Techniques Using 10Be in Rock Boulders and 14C of Resilient Soil Organic Matter for Reconstructing the Chronology of Glacial and Periglacial Processes in a High Alpine Catchment during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Filippo Favilli ,
Markus Egli ,
Dagmar Brandova ,
Susan Ivy-Ochs ,
Peter W Kubik ,
Max Maisch ,
Paolo Cherubini  and
Wilfried Haeberli
Filippo Favilli
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Zurich-Irchel, Winterthurerstrasse 190, CH-8057 Zurich, Switzerland
Markus Egli*
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Zurich-Irchel, Winterthurerstrasse 190, CH-8057 Zurich, Switzerland
Dagmar Brandova
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Zurich-Irchel, Winterthurerstrasse 190, CH-8057 Zurich, Switzerland
Susan Ivy-Ochs
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Zurich-Irchel, Winterthurerstrasse 190, CH-8057 Zurich, Switzerland Institute of Particle Physics, ETH Zurich, CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland
Peter W Kubik
Affiliation:
Paul Scherrer Institute, c/o Institute of Particle Physics, ETH Zurich, CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland
Max Maisch
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Zurich-Irchel, Winterthurerstrasse 190, CH-8057 Zurich, Switzerland
Paolo Cherubini
Affiliation:
Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, WSL, Zürcherstrasse 111, CH-8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland
Wilfried Haeberli
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Zurich-Irchel, Winterthurerstrasse 190, CH-8057 Zurich, Switzerland
*
Corresponding author. Email: markus.egli@geo.uzh.ch
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Abstract

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Glacier fluctuations and paleoclimatic oscillations during the Late Quaternary in Val di Rabbi (Trentino, northern Italy) were reconstructed using a combination of absolute dating techniques (14C and 10Be) and soil chemical characterization. Extraction and dating of the stable fraction of soil organic matter (SOM) gave valuable information about the minimum age of soil formation and contributed to the deciphering of geomorphic surface dynamics. The comparison of 10Be surface exposure dating (SED) of rock surfaces with the 14C ages of resilient (resistant to H2O2 oxidation) soil organic matter gave a fairly good agreement, but with some questionable aspects. It is concluded that, applied with adequate carefulness, dating of SOM with 14C might be a useful tool in reconstructing landscape history in high Alpine areas with siliceous parent material. The combination of 14C dating of SOM with SED with cosmogenic 10Be (on moraines and erratic boulders) indicated that deglaciation processes in Val di Rabbi were already ongoing by around 14,000 cal BP at an altitude of 2300 m asl and that glacier oscillations might have affected the higher part of the region until about 9000 cal BP. 10Be and 14C ages correlate well with the altitude of the sampling sites and with the established Lateglacial chronology.

Type
Radiocarbon, Archaeology, and Landscape Change
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 51 , Issue 2 , 2009 , pp. 537 - 552
Copyright
Copyright © 2009 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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