Glacial isostatic uplift of the European Alps
Abstract Following the last glacial maximum (LGM), the demise of continental ice sheets induced crustal rebound in tectonically stable regions of North America and Scandinavia that is still ongoing. Unlike the ice sheets, the Alpine ice cap developed in an orogen where the measured uplift is potenti...
Published in: | Nature Communications |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
2016
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13382 http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms13382.pdf http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms13382 |
id |
crspringernat:10.1038/ncomms13382 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
crspringernat:10.1038/ncomms13382 2023-05-15T16:38:08+02:00 Glacial isostatic uplift of the European Alps Mey, Jürgen Scherler, Dirk Wickert, Andrew D. Egholm, David L. Tesauro, Magdala Schildgen, Taylor F. Strecker, Manfred R. 2016 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13382 http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms13382.pdf http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms13382 en eng Springer Science and Business Media LLC https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 CC-BY Nature Communications volume 7, issue 1 ISSN 2041-1723 General Physics and Astronomy General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology General Chemistry journal-article 2016 crspringernat https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13382 2022-01-04T15:18:07Z Abstract Following the last glacial maximum (LGM), the demise of continental ice sheets induced crustal rebound in tectonically stable regions of North America and Scandinavia that is still ongoing. Unlike the ice sheets, the Alpine ice cap developed in an orogen where the measured uplift is potentially attributed to tectonic shortening, lithospheric delamination and unloading due to deglaciation and erosion. Here we show that ∼90% of the geodetically measured rock uplift in the Alps can be explained by the Earth’s viscoelastic response to LGM deglaciation. We modelled rock uplift by reconstructing the Alpine ice cap, while accounting for postglacial erosion, sediment deposition and spatial variations in lithospheric rigidity. Clusters of excessive uplift in the Rhône Valley and in the Eastern Alps delineate regions potentially affected by mantle processes, crustal heterogeneity and active tectonics. Our study shows that even small LGM ice caps can dominate present-day rock uplift in tectonically active regions. Article in Journal/Newspaper Ice cap Springer Nature (via Crossref) Nature Communications 7 1 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Springer Nature (via Crossref) |
op_collection_id |
crspringernat |
language |
English |
topic |
General Physics and Astronomy General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology General Chemistry |
spellingShingle |
General Physics and Astronomy General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology General Chemistry Mey, Jürgen Scherler, Dirk Wickert, Andrew D. Egholm, David L. Tesauro, Magdala Schildgen, Taylor F. Strecker, Manfred R. Glacial isostatic uplift of the European Alps |
topic_facet |
General Physics and Astronomy General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology General Chemistry |
description |
Abstract Following the last glacial maximum (LGM), the demise of continental ice sheets induced crustal rebound in tectonically stable regions of North America and Scandinavia that is still ongoing. Unlike the ice sheets, the Alpine ice cap developed in an orogen where the measured uplift is potentially attributed to tectonic shortening, lithospheric delamination and unloading due to deglaciation and erosion. Here we show that ∼90% of the geodetically measured rock uplift in the Alps can be explained by the Earth’s viscoelastic response to LGM deglaciation. We modelled rock uplift by reconstructing the Alpine ice cap, while accounting for postglacial erosion, sediment deposition and spatial variations in lithospheric rigidity. Clusters of excessive uplift in the Rhône Valley and in the Eastern Alps delineate regions potentially affected by mantle processes, crustal heterogeneity and active tectonics. Our study shows that even small LGM ice caps can dominate present-day rock uplift in tectonically active regions. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Mey, Jürgen Scherler, Dirk Wickert, Andrew D. Egholm, David L. Tesauro, Magdala Schildgen, Taylor F. Strecker, Manfred R. |
author_facet |
Mey, Jürgen Scherler, Dirk Wickert, Andrew D. Egholm, David L. Tesauro, Magdala Schildgen, Taylor F. Strecker, Manfred R. |
author_sort |
Mey, Jürgen |
title |
Glacial isostatic uplift of the European Alps |
title_short |
Glacial isostatic uplift of the European Alps |
title_full |
Glacial isostatic uplift of the European Alps |
title_fullStr |
Glacial isostatic uplift of the European Alps |
title_full_unstemmed |
Glacial isostatic uplift of the European Alps |
title_sort |
glacial isostatic uplift of the european alps |
publisher |
Springer Science and Business Media LLC |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13382 http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms13382.pdf http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms13382 |
genre |
Ice cap |
genre_facet |
Ice cap |
op_source |
Nature Communications volume 7, issue 1 ISSN 2041-1723 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13382 |
container_title |
Nature Communications |
container_volume |
7 |
container_issue |
1 |
_version_ |
1766028430311161856 |