A study of the Würm glaciation focused on the Valais region (Alps)

During the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), the glaciation in the European Alps reached maximum ice extent. We already simulated the steady states of the Alpine ice coverage for several climate drivers in Becker et al. (2016) and heighten in this article such studies for the Swiss Valais region. To this...

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Main Authors: Becker, Patrick, Funk, Martin, Schlüchter, Christian, Hutter, Kolumban
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Copernicus 2017
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/230696
https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000224684
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spelling ftethz:oai:www.research-collection.ethz.ch:20.500.11850/230696 2023-05-15T16:03:05+02:00 A study of the Würm glaciation focused on the Valais region (Alps) Becker, Patrick Funk, Martin Schlüchter, Christian Hutter, Kolumban 2017 application/application/pdf https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/230696 https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000224684 en eng Copernicus info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.5194/gh-72-421-2017 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/230696 doi:10.3929/ethz-b-000224684 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported CC-BY Geographica Helvetica, 72 (4) info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 2017 ftethz https://doi.org/20.500.11850/230696 https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000224684 https://doi.org/10.5194/gh-72-421-2017 2022-04-25T13:21:34Z During the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), the glaciation in the European Alps reached maximum ice extent. We already simulated the steady states of the Alpine ice coverage for several climate drivers in Becker et al. (2016) and heighten in this article such studies for the Swiss Valais region. To this end, we employ the Parallel Ice Sheet Model (PISM), which combines the shallow ice approximation (SIA) with basal sliding elements of the shallow shelf approximation (SSA), and subject this model to various external driving mechanisms. We further test the sensitivity of this kind of the ice coverage in the Valais region to a temporally constant climate and to monotonic ice sheet build-up from inception to steady state as well as to the Dye 3 temperature driving during the past 120 000 years. We also test differences in the precipitation patterns exerted to the northern and southern catchment areas of the Rhone and Toce rivers to possible transfluence changes in ice from the northern to the southern catchment areas and vice versa. Moreover, we study the effect of the ice deformability and estimate the removal up to 1000 m of sediment in the Rhone Valley and study the removal of rock hindering the flow through the valley cross section at the knee of Martigny. All these studies took place because of a discrepancy in the ice height prediction of the modelled ice sheet with its geomorphologically reconstructed counterpart with proxy data obtained by Bini et al. (2009) as well as a difference in ice height between the two of up to 800 m. Unfortunately, all the scenarios in the model do not sufficiently reduce this discrepancy in the height prediction and the geomorphological reconstruction. The model results have discovered an ice dynamical discrepancy with the land map in Bini et al. (2009). ISSN:0016-7312 Article in Journal/Newspaper Dye 3 Dye-3 Ice Sheet ETH Zürich Research Collection Rhone ENVELOPE(158.733,158.733,-79.983,-79.983)
institution Open Polar
collection ETH Zürich Research Collection
op_collection_id ftethz
language English
description During the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), the glaciation in the European Alps reached maximum ice extent. We already simulated the steady states of the Alpine ice coverage for several climate drivers in Becker et al. (2016) and heighten in this article such studies for the Swiss Valais region. To this end, we employ the Parallel Ice Sheet Model (PISM), which combines the shallow ice approximation (SIA) with basal sliding elements of the shallow shelf approximation (SSA), and subject this model to various external driving mechanisms. We further test the sensitivity of this kind of the ice coverage in the Valais region to a temporally constant climate and to monotonic ice sheet build-up from inception to steady state as well as to the Dye 3 temperature driving during the past 120 000 years. We also test differences in the precipitation patterns exerted to the northern and southern catchment areas of the Rhone and Toce rivers to possible transfluence changes in ice from the northern to the southern catchment areas and vice versa. Moreover, we study the effect of the ice deformability and estimate the removal up to 1000 m of sediment in the Rhone Valley and study the removal of rock hindering the flow through the valley cross section at the knee of Martigny. All these studies took place because of a discrepancy in the ice height prediction of the modelled ice sheet with its geomorphologically reconstructed counterpart with proxy data obtained by Bini et al. (2009) as well as a difference in ice height between the two of up to 800 m. Unfortunately, all the scenarios in the model do not sufficiently reduce this discrepancy in the height prediction and the geomorphological reconstruction. The model results have discovered an ice dynamical discrepancy with the land map in Bini et al. (2009). ISSN:0016-7312
format Article in Journal/Newspaper
author Becker, Patrick
Funk, Martin
Schlüchter, Christian
Hutter, Kolumban
spellingShingle Becker, Patrick
Funk, Martin
Schlüchter, Christian
Hutter, Kolumban
A study of the Würm glaciation focused on the Valais region (Alps)
author_facet Becker, Patrick
Funk, Martin
Schlüchter, Christian
Hutter, Kolumban
author_sort Becker, Patrick
title A study of the Würm glaciation focused on the Valais region (Alps)
title_short A study of the Würm glaciation focused on the Valais region (Alps)
title_full A study of the Würm glaciation focused on the Valais region (Alps)
title_fullStr A study of the Würm glaciation focused on the Valais region (Alps)
title_full_unstemmed A study of the Würm glaciation focused on the Valais region (Alps)
title_sort study of the würm glaciation focused on the valais region (alps)
publisher Copernicus
publishDate 2017
url https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/230696
https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000224684
long_lat ENVELOPE(158.733,158.733,-79.983,-79.983)
geographic Rhone
geographic_facet Rhone
genre Dye 3
Dye-3
Ice Sheet
genre_facet Dye 3
Dye-3
Ice Sheet
op_source Geographica Helvetica, 72 (4)
op_relation info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.5194/gh-72-421-2017
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/230696
doi:10.3929/ethz-b-000224684
op_rights info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported
op_rightsnorm CC-BY
op_doi https://doi.org/20.500.11850/230696
https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000224684
https://doi.org/10.5194/gh-72-421-2017
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