Glaciation history and environmental evolution of overdeepened valleys in the northern Alpine Foreland

Our knowledge of the Quaternary environmental history of the Alps is still rather limited, especially for the time preceding the last glaciation of the Alps. While a substantial amount of research has focused on the transition from the last glacial periods into the Holocene, the change from interglacial times into the beginning of last glacial cycle has so far found little attention.
A planned project will investigate the Middle to Late Pleistocene paleoenvironmental history in a glacially overdeepened valley in the northern perialpine realm. A ~100 m long core will be drilled in early 2009 near the village of Niederweningen, located in Wehntal in the Swiss lowlands. The area is famous for encounters of Mammoth bones that were deposited in peat horizons in the subsurface and that were revealed in construction pits. > Mammutmuseum
This study will investigate in detail the paleoenvironmental evolution at the transition from the end of the Eemian interglacial into the beginning last glacial cycle (Würmian). The core, that will be drilled to bedrock, will consist in its lower part of glacial/interglacial deposits (moraines, lake sediments, peat, ...) originating from even older periods, providing new insights into timing and processes of glacial erosion leading to the overdeepened valleys surrounding the Alps.

Project partners

Heinz Furrer (Univ. Zürich), Frank Preusser (Univ. Bern), Hansruedi Graf (MBN Gächlingen)

Publication

Furrer, H., Graf, H.R., Mäder, A. (2007) The mammoth site of Niederweningen, Switzerland. Quaternary International 164–165, 85–97. (pdf, 2MB)