Disentangling the Tectonic vs. Glacial control over millennial-scale denudation rates of the Niedere Tauern, Eastern Alps, Austria

Understanding the relative control of tectonics and climate over denudation rates has been a driver of scientific research over the past decades, especially in mountainous regions. In the Alps, although millennial-scale denudation rates range over two orders of magnitude, it is generally accepted that these are largely driven by the topographic overprint left by the Quaternary glaciations. However, tectonic uplift rates also vary substantially across the range, complicating this interpretation. Apatite (U-Th)/He ages from the Niedere Tauern indicate Late Miocene to Early Pliocene exhumation, attributed to tectonic activity given the very regional scale of this exhumation. This region, which is also ideally located at the eastern margin of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) ice extent, is therefore an ideal natural laboratory for investigating the controls on Quaternary glaciations in the Alps.

We present new ¹⁰Be-derived denudation rates of 17 catchments of the Eastern Alps, 10 of which are located within the Mio-Pliocene uplifted Niedere Tauern, and 7 outside of it. The 3 easternmost catchments of the Niedere Tauern are located at the edge of the LGM ice extent. Combined with previously published cosmogenic nuclide data from the region, this dataset allows us to investigate whether present-day denudation patterns primarily reflect the imprint of Quaternary glaciations, or the longer-term tectonic control associated with Mio–Pliocene uplift.