Ice-dammed lakes

This project investigates successions of ice-dammed glaciolacustrine sediments preserved in Alpine tributary valleys as alternative terrestrial archives of pre-LGM glacier dynamics. Ice-dammed lakes form when advancing trunk glaciers block tributary valleys, creating sediment traps that record ice-margin positions and glacier fluctuations.
We apply an integrated approach combining detailed geomorphological and sedimentological analyses with luminescence geochronology. The sedimentary architecture and stratigraphic relationships of ice-dammed deposits and associated delta complexes provide spatial constraints on interconnected valley glacier systems, while chronological control is established using OSL and IRSL dating. Particular emphasis is placed on methodological challenges of luminescence dating in Alpine glacial environments, especially those related to incomplete bleaching.
By combining sedimentological reconstruction with luminescence geochronology, this project aims to improve the understanding of the spatiotemporal dynamics of Alpine glacier systems prior to the LGM and to evaluate the significance of ice-dammed lake systems as ice-marginal indicators and, therefore, as proxies for paleo glacier dynamics. Modelling by Guillaume Jouvet’s group (University of Lausanne) is helping guide our sampling campaign and will provide benchmarks for our numerically constrained ice‑margin positions.

Collaborators: University Lausanne, Guillaume Jouvet, Tancrède Leger; Geosphere Austria, Alfred Gruber, Jürgen Reitner

Funding: PhD fellowship Benjamin Spitaler, Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research

Duration 2025 - 2029

Involved Master Projects: Florian Schäffer, Filip Stuffer