This project focuses on further developing and applying a set of classical and novel optical dating (OSL) techniques to rock fall sites and deep-seated gravitational slope deformations in the Eastern Alps (see youtube clip on our field sampling campaign in the Ötz valley). The project is focused on the extended methodological capabilities of OSL rock surface exposure and rock surface burial dating in combination with OSL sediment burial dating. This will allow the emplacement history of rock fall boulders and the magnitude and frequency distribution of rock fall events to be more accurately constrained. Furthermore, rock surface exposure dating of crystalline head scarps should also provide new insights into the timing and kinematic behaviour of deep-seated gravitational slope deformations. Forging these individual dating approaches into a coherent dating strategy and applying it to alpine mass wasting events is a novel and promising reseach endeavour never attempted before in the wider context of the Eastern Alps.
Project: Dating of rock slope failures and rock scarps using novel and classical optical dating techniques. Duration: 2018-2022, funded in the framework of the U. Innsbruck doctoral programm "Natural hazards in mountain regions"
P.i.: Michael Meyer
Co-p.i´s: Mayank Jain & Reza Sohbati (Nuclear Technology Centre Risø, Technical U. of Denmark)
PhD: Stephan Fuhrmann
Partners:
Marc Ostermann (Geological Survey of Austria)
Hugo Ortner (Institute of Geology, U. Innsbruck)
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