EGU2020-11034, updated on 10 Jan 2023
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-11034
EGU General Assembly 2020
© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Numerical age dating of Danube terraces from one fault block (Rauchenwarth) west of the Vienna Basin Transform Fault (Austria)

Stephanie Neuhuber1, Zsófia Ruszkiczay-Rüdiger2, Christopher Lüthgens1, Philip Martin1, Bernhard Salcher3, Esther Hintersberger4, Régis Braucher5, Johannes Lachner6,7, Sandra Braumann1, and Markus Fiebig1
Stephanie Neuhuber et al.
  • 1Institute of Applied Geology, BOKU Wien, Vienna, Austria (stephanie.neuhuber@boku.ac.at)
  • 2Institute for Geological and Geochemical Research, Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences, Budapest, Hungary (rrzsofi@geochem.hu))
  • 3University of Salzburg, Department of Geography and Geology, Salzburg, Austria
  • 4Department of Geodynamics and Sedimentology, University of Vienna, Austria
  • 5Aix-Marseille Uninersity, CEREGE, CNRS, IRD, Collége de France, INRAE, France
  • 6Isotope Physics, University of Vienna, Vienna, Ausrtia
  • 7Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Dresden, Germany

Fluvial terraces within the extensional structure of the Vienna Basin have been dissected by faults related to the sinistral movement of the Vienna Basin Transform Fault System (VBTF, Decker et al., 2005). Each fault block within the basin displays a slightly different succession of terraces regarding their number, elevation, and preservation. Generally, altitudes of terrace bases within the Vienna Basin vary between 5 and 130 m above the recent Danube river bed.

This study focuses on one clearly confined fault block, the Rauchenwarth Plateau, located south of the Danube. The plateau forms the western part of intra-basinal hills crossing the Vienna Basin and consists mainly of Miocene sediments that are in part covered by quaternary fluvial terrace deposits at different elevations. The entire succession is widely covered by loess or re-deposited aeolian sediments. To depict the formations below the loess cover we use 19 wells to construct three sections crossing the eastern part of the block in E-W and two parallel sections in N-S direction. The sections show that three levels of fluvial terraces at the northern eastern side of the block are preserved. The lowest and highest levels are accessible in gravel pits with well-defined Miocene bases. These two levels with terrace bases ~67 m and ~24 m above the recent Danube contain large quartz cobbles suitable for dating using in-situ produced 26Al and 10Be. Sample sets were taken at 11 m (higher terrace) and 14 m (lower terrace) below todays surface. Sandy sediments from the lower level were in addition dated by luminescence on feldspar using the pIRIR 225 signal. Age calculations using the isochron method (Balco and Rovey, 2008) as well as inverse modelling for the upper level suggest burial durations of ~1.2 Ma. Results of age calculations using cosmogenic nuclides as well as luminescence ages for the lower level will be presented at the conference.

Thanks to NKFIH 124807; OMAA 90öu17, the INSU/CNRS, the ANR through the program “EQUIPEX Investissement d’Avenir” and IRD

References

Balco, G., Rovey, C., 2008. Am. J. of Science 308, 1083-1114.

Decker, K., et al., 2005. Quat. Sci. Rev. 24, 305-320.

How to cite: Neuhuber, S., Ruszkiczay-Rüdiger, Z., Lüthgens, C., Martin, P., Salcher, B., Hintersberger, E., Braucher, R., Lachner, J., Braumann, S., and Fiebig, M.: Numerical age dating of Danube terraces from one fault block (Rauchenwarth) west of the Vienna Basin Transform Fault (Austria) , EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-11034, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-11034, 2020.

This abstract will not be presented.