This month the Earth Surface Process Modelling group from GFZ is visiting us. We took this opportunity to do a 2-day field excursion at the Gorner glacier flowing down Monte Rosa.

 

Günther published a new study investigating the coupling between glacial erosion and tectonics: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/2017JF004559

It builds up on previous work by Headley et al. (2012), and it now provides a theoretical framework for the glacial buzzsaw hypothesis.

Rabiul published a paper on his methodological development of thermo-luminescence thermometry (TLT) in Earth and Planetary Science Letters: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012821X18302334

This study builds on the suite of thermochronometric techniques we are developing in our laboratory. TLT enables us to target different traps that have different kinetic properties, and in turn gain more constraints on the recent (i.e., 10-100 ky) thermal histories of rocks.

The paper also proposes an alternative way to directly invert TLT data into exhumation rate histories using a Bayesian inverse approach.

Together with Jean Braun, Eric Deal and Gunther Prasicek we estimated the response time of glacial erosion. Here is our publication: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/2017JF004586

 

Antoine Cogez estimated the residence time of glacial sediments in Patagonia. Using U and Th series, we found that the residence time is surprisingly long (i.e., > 100 kyr). Here is the article : https://www.earth-surf-dynam.net/6/121/2018/

Here is a new publication that summarises our recent progress and activities about OSL thermochronometry: http://elementsmagazine.org/2018/02/01/luminescence-thermochronometry-investigating-link-between-mountain-erosion-tectonics-climate/

Investigation of OSL surface-exposure dating to reconstruct post-LIA glacier fluctuations in the French Alps (Mer de Glace, Mont-Blanc massif) by Lehmann B. Valla P.G, King G.E., Herman F.