Project description
Climate’s role in mountain denudation
Research suggests that mountain ranges are not static but evolve with (and respond to) Earth’s climate and tectonic uplift. Scientists are still debating on how this process of erosion known as denudation (the breaking and removing of rocks from the surface of the earth) is affected by changes in climate. It’s a difficult question to answer because no current technique can analyse changes in erosion rates during the glacial-interglacial periods. The EU-funded ICED project will resolve this debate by creating a time-series of rock erosion over a thousand to one million years ago. This method will permit erosion rate changes to correlate to particular meteorological changes and processes for the first time.
Objective
Mountain ranges evolve in response to tectonic uplift, erosion and climatic change, but decoupling the feedbacks between these processes remains one of the most active debates in Earth Science. Resolving this debate is fundamental for successful projection of Earth’s surface response under a changing climate. The Impact of ClimatE on mountain Denudation remains highly contested because no technique is available to resolve changes in erosion rates over the timescale of glacial-interglacial cycles i.e. 10^3-6 years, a key time range for quantifying the role that silicate weathering and denudation plays in modulating global climatic change. ICED will resolve this debate through establishing time-series of rock erosion over 10^3-6 years, allowing erosion rate changes to be related to specific climatic changes, and specific processes, for the first time. These data will show whether tectonics or climatic feedbacks on surface processes are dominant in determining rates of surface denudation, providing insights into the influence of the lithosphere on global climatic change throughout the Quaternary period (ice age).
The objective of ICED will be achieved through the development and application of recently established thermochronometers based on the luminescence and electron spin resonance of quartz and feldspar minerals. Thermochronometers measure the rate of rock cooling, from which rates of rock exhumation and thus erosion rates can be calculated. Unlike existing methods, the new techniques developed within ICED are capable of resolving changes in erosion over timescales of between 10^3-6 years. Combining these new methods with cosmogenic nuclide data, using numerical models developed within ICED, will allow the generation of high-resolution time-series of erosion. The strategic application of these new techniques to the western European Alps will allow the Impact of ClimatE on mountain Denudation rates to be resolved for the first time.
Fields of science
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Funding Scheme
ERC-STG - Starting GrantHost institution
1015 LAUSANNE
Switzerland