Constraints on the Miocene landscape evolution of the Eastern Alps from the Kalkspitze region, Niedere Tauern (Austria)

Dertnig, Florian; Stüwe, Kurt; Woodhead, Jon; Stuart, Finlay M.; Spötl, Christoph

doi:10.1016/j.geomorph.2017.09.024

Cited by 9 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Such aerially confined uplifting regions can be explained by the development of local transpression in between Riedel shears as demonstrated by analogue modeling studies (Dooley & Schreurs, ; Leever et al, ). Our findings from the MMF are in line with results deduced from paleo‐landscape studies, which show that Austroalpine units north and south of the sinistral SEMP share a common uplift history, implying that south side up vertical motions across the central segment of the SEMP were minor (Dertnig et al, ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Cooling and Vertical Motions of Crustal Wedges Prior to, During, and After Lateral Extrusion in the Eastern Alps: New Field Kinematic and Fission Track Data from the Mur‐Mürz Fault System

et al. 2020

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New structural and thermochronological (zircon and apatite fission track) data from the eastern most Alps highlight distinct deformation phases affecting the Austroalpine unit along a major sinistral strike-slip fault system, the Mur-Mürz fault (MMF). The data link deformation to vertical motions prior to, during, and after the main phase of lateral extrusion of the orogen. Zircon fission track ages document rapid (ca. 15°C/Myr) and diachronous (eastward younging) cooling and rock exhumation during the latest Cretaceous to Paleocene. Subsequent regional Eocene to early Miocene cooling below the closure temperature of the apatite fission track system occurred at slow rates (ca. 2°C/Myr), suggesting that the region was not subject to major surface uplift and erosion during that period. Fault kinematic analysis along the MMF document pre-extrusion NNW-SSE contraction, middle Miocene syn-extrusion NE-SW to NNE-SSW directed shortening, and Late Miocene E-W contraction. All phases are characterized by strike-slip fault regimes. Formation of the complex MMF zone triggered the exhumation of small, fault-bound crustal blocks within the fault zone as documented by middle Miocene apatite fission track ages. Overall, ages are similar on both sides of the fault suggesting that lateral extrusion along the MMF was not associated with significant differential vertical motions. Local Pliocene rock cooling and exhumation was probably related to the buttressing effect of the underthrust Bohemian basement spur. Whereas large-scale, post-extrusion surface uplift of the extruding crustal wedges, such as the "Styrian block," must have been related to long-wavelength deformation processes affecting the easternmost Alps.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Cooling and Vertical Motions of Crustal Wedges Prior to, During, and After Lateral Extrusion in the Eastern Alps: New Field Kinematic and Fission Track Data from the Mur‐Mürz Fault System

et al. 2020

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“…Some other, albeit much lower, low-relief surfaces are known from the eastern end of the Alpine range (Winkler-Hermaden, 1957). Recent studies from various mountainous region surrounding the Styrian Basin have investigated these lower surfaces in detail (Wagner et al, 2011;Legrain et al, 2015;Stüwe and Hohmann, 2021;Dertnig et al, 2017;Bartosch and Stüwe, 2019; Fig. 1) and showed that they can be correlated and that they are a reflection of a Piedmonttreppe (Stüwe and Hohmann, 2021 and references therein), where different low relief surface reflect stages of a successive uplift.…”

Section: Low-relief Landscapes In the Eastern Alpsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Fischbach Alps: A Geomorphological Record of late Neogene Uplift at the Eastern Margin of the European Alps

Hohmann,

Stüwe

2024

Austrian Journal of Earth Sciences

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Low-relief surfaces at high elevations are peculiar features of the Eastern Alps that are best explained as relicts of morphological base levels that escaped erosive decay during uplift. To expand our knowledge of such surfaces in the Eastern Alps, the Fischbach Alps at the eastern end of the range are investigated. There, a large number of these elevated low-relief surfaces have been known for some time, but modern mapping is absent and their genesis is not well understood. A combined approach of field mapping, morphometric analysis of a digital elevation model and downstream projection of geomorphic equilibrium sections in river profiles was employed to: (i) create a geomorphological map of the region and (ii) to extract quantitative data from river profiles to infer the amount of uplift and incision. Six discrete levels of low-relief surfaces and relict landscapes are recognized at elevations between ~500 m and ~1600 m. Some of the lower levels are interpreted to relate to the well-known Trahutten, Landscha and Stadelberg levels, known from other parts of Styria, respectively. Mapped low-relief surface levels follow the northward directed topographic gradient in the mountainous region of the Fischbach Alps. The formation of elevated low-relief surfaces is consistent with a Piedmonttreppen model, where successive phases of tectonic uplift and tectonic quiescence led to a succession of incised landscapes and low-relief surfaces. However, the entire region south of the Murztal was also then tilted towards the Styrian Basin by about ~1–2°. Swath profile analysis for the Raab and Weizbach Klamm suggests a minimum of ~400–450 m incision since the formation of the so called Hubenhalt level. This implies that the geomorphic response to tectonic uplift after the formation of the higher Wolscheneck and Koralm relict landscapes led to an estimated incision of up to 1000 m (868±101 m), relative to the base level of today’s Styrian Basin at ~380 m. By comparing published age data to the presented mapping results, the onset for much of the uplift at the eastern end of the Alps is suggested to lie between ~4–7 Ma, before the formation of the Hubenhalt and Trahutten levels. Because the mapped levels correlate well with those in many other regions at similar elevations, a growing body of work now suggests that the underlying uplift event has a large wavelength.

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“…Wobus et al, 2006;Robl et al, 2015). In the Eastern Alps, relic landscapes that may form a Piedmonttreppe have recently been described in modern studies from the Calcareous Alps (Frisch et al, 1998), the Gurktal Alps (Bartosch and Stüwe, 2019), the Niedere Tauern (Dertnig et al, 2017), the Koralpe (Legrain et al, 2014), the Grazer Bergland (Wagner et al, 2011), or the Fischbach Alps (Hohmann and Stüwe, 2019;Schuster et al, 2015). Their existence is consistent with orogen-scale morphological data that the Alps are geomorphologically pre-mature (Hergarten et al, 2010) and many of the surfaces described in these studies can, in fact, be correlated with those from other areas.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Relic Landscapes of the Grazer Bergland: Revisiting the Piedmonttreppen Debate

Stüwe

Hohmann

2021

Austrian Journal of Earth Sciences

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The Grazer Bergland is a mountainous region at the eastern end of the Alps that escaped glacial erosion in the Pleistocene and thus preserves low-relief landforms that are relics of the earlier uplift history. These relic landforms may reflect a Piedmonttreppe that formed during a series of stages of a wide-reaching Pliocene uplift event that interacts with the landscape evolution, but this model is not uniquely accepted for the region. In order to test this model and for a future better correlation of the paleosurfaces with those mapped in other regions, it is important to benchmark these relic landforms. We do so by presenting a geomorphic map of the Bergland region over some 600 km2. We describe the well-known levels Stadelberg/Zahrerberg- (at 540 – 700 m a.s.l.), Kalkleiten/Hochstraden- (at 700 – 850 m a.s.l.), Trahütten- (at 950 – 1100 m a.s.l.), Hubenhalt- (at 1200 m a.s.l.), as well as Wolschenegg- and Kor- (at 1200-1720 m a.s.l.) levels and correlate their distribution in space and time. Fluvial channels between segments of the relic surfaces have knickpoints that correlate with the planation surfaces, which is in strong support of the Piedmonttreppe model. Our analysis results in a model that interprets the course of the Mur river to be the product of a river piracy event near Peggau at the time of the planation of the Trahütten level (about 4 Ma), diverting the paleo-Mur from an eastwards course along the Mürz valley in direction Vienna, towards Graz. Thereafter, the Mur remained antecedent with respect to the uplift of the surrounding massifs resulting in massive base level drop for many tributaries, like the Mixnitzbach or Rötschbach. The resulting knickpoints have since migrated upstream to cause successive minor river capture events, for example the Rötschbach capture at Kesselfall. We also show that the presence of lower levels in the Passail Basin is best interpreted in terms of the more efficient erosion of basin sediments that filled a Miocene half graben north of the Schöckl ridge and analyze the two major drainages of the region, the Raab and the Weizbach.

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Constraints on the Miocene landscape evolution of the Eastern Alps from the Kalkspitze region, Niedere Tauern (Austria)

Cited by 9 publications

References 39 publications

Cooling and Vertical Motions of Crustal Wedges Prior to, During, and After Lateral Extrusion in the Eastern Alps: New Field Kinematic and Fission Track Data from the Mur‐Mürz Fault System

Cooling and Vertical Motions of Crustal Wedges Prior to, During, and After Lateral Extrusion in the Eastern Alps: New Field Kinematic and Fission Track Data from the Mur‐Mürz Fault System

The Fischbach Alps: A Geomorphological Record of late Neogene Uplift at the Eastern Margin of the European Alps

The Relic Landscapes of the Grazer Bergland: Revisiting the Piedmonttreppen Debate

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