The Quaternary Transformation of Older Inherited Mountain Landscapes

• Published in: Studia Geomorphologica Carpatho-Balcanica
• Main Author: Starkel, Leszek
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Walter de Gruyter GmbH 2014
• Subjects: permafrost
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/sgcb-2015-0004; https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/sgcb.2014.48.issue-1/sgcb-2015-0004/sgcb-2015-0004.pdf

Abstract The Quaternary transformation of the inherited mountain relief was controlled by three factors: cyclic climatic changes, resistance of the substratum and neotectonic uplift. Cyclic climatic fluctuations in the majority of European mountains were reflected in the alternation of interglacial and cold stages, the former characterized by a dominance of forest and chemical weathering, the latter by permafrost, solifluction, wind activity and, at higher elevations, by glacier advances. The transitional phases played an important role as periods of re-establishment of water circulation and transfer of regolith and sediment, formed during the previous cold or interglacial stage. The rates of degradation of inherited planation surfaces and slopes depend on bedrock resistance. In the case of less resistant flysch deposits, degradation during a single (last) cold stage reached 10 metres. Therefore, the higher planation levels may have been either better preserved on more resistant bedrock or even emphasized by cryoplanation processes. The lowest piedmont developed on less resistant beds was lowered to 50 m. In the young mountains, the Quaternary uplift may have played an additional role. In the case of uplift reaching or exceeding several hundred metres, the former fluvial forms were shifted to the cryonival or even nival (glacial) vertical zone where they became entirely transformed.