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Projects / Programmes source: ARIS

Subglacial carbonate deposits - a new source for studying the presence of glaciers in a glaciokarstic environment

Research activity

Code Science Field Subfield
6.12.00  Humanities  Geography   

Code Science Field
5.07  Social Sciences  Social and economic geography 
Keywords
geomorphology, glaciokarst, carbonates, cryosphere, palaeoclimate, palaeoenvironment, climate change
Evaluation (metodology)
source: COBISS
Organisations (2) , Researchers (18)
0618  Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts
no. Code Name and surname Research area Role Period No. of publicationsNo. of publications
1.  27510  PhD Mateja Breg Valjavec  Geography  Researcher  2021 - 2025  208 
2.  30791  PhD Rok Ciglič  Geography  Researcher  2021 - 2025  446 
3.  33273  PhD Mateja Ferk  Geography  Researcher  2021 - 2025  211 
4.  13179  PhD Mauro Hrvatin  Humanities  Researcher  2021 - 2025  370 
5.  21464  PhD Blaž Komac  Geography  Researcher  2021 - 2025  649 
6.  50215  PhD Matej Lipar  Geography  Researcher  2021 - 2025  189 
7.  14000  MSc Miha Pavšek  Geography  Researcher  2021 - 2025  1,488 
8.  38267  PhD Jure Tičar  Geography  Researcher  2021 - 2025  256 
9.  08101  PhD Maja Topole  Geography  Researcher  2024 - 2025  518 
10.  33837  PhD Manca Volk Bahun  Humanities  Researcher  2021 - 2025  346 
11.  22245  PhD Matija Zorn  Geography  Head  2021 - 2025  1,287 
0106  Jožef Stefan Institute
no. Code Name and surname Research area Role Period No. of publicationsNo. of publications
1.  52052  PhD Katarina Kozlica  Chemistry  Young researcher  2021 - 2022  55 
2.  10807  PhD Sonja Lojen  Geology  Researcher  2021 - 2025  527 
3.  18359  PhD Janez Ščančar  Control and care of the environment  Researcher  2021 - 2025  708 
4.  11093  PhD Srečo Davor Škapin  Chemistry  Researcher  2021 - 2025  610 
5.  18290  PhD Polona Vreča  Geology  Researcher  2021 - 2025  722 
6.  53459  PhD Klara Žagar  Geology  Young researcher  2021 - 2023  163 
7.  25667  PhD Tea Zuliani  Control and care of the environment  Researcher  2021 - 2025  349 
Abstract
Subglacial carbonate deposits have been exposed on the lee sides of small protuberances on a bare polished and striated limestone bedrock surface in the immediate vicinity of the disappearing Triglav and Skuta glaciers in southeastern Alps, Slovenia. The preliminary uranium-thorium dating of those carbonates indicate that they were deposited in the Last Glacial Maximum and the Younger Dryas. Unlike other remnants of glacial deposits (e.g., moraines), subglacial carbonates are prone to fast weathering and may be eroded in a few decades, but Triglav and Skuta glaciers, have generally been viewed as relicts of the Little Ice Age with discontinuous presence due to the warm Holocene Climatic Optimum. If Triglav and Skuta glaciers melted completely during the Optimum, the Last Glacial Maximum and Younger Dryas subglacial carbonates should have not survived the weathering and denudation. But there is lack of information on subglacial carbonates in the vicinity of glaciers in southeastern Alps, and the lack of information on the exact rate of subglacial carbonate frost weathering. The question “have the glaciers survived the Holocene Climactic Optimum, and if they did, why?” can only be answered by a focused approach with high-resolution analyses of the subglacial carbonates. The aim of the project is to establish whether glaciers in southeastern Alps in Slovenia are disappearing for the first time in Holocene, and what are the forcing components since the Holocene Climactic Optimum globally was characterised by higher temperatures than today. This will be achieved by the study of subglacial carbonate deposits in the high mountain karst environments of the southeastern Alps. We will use the modern laboratory techniques including U-Th dating of subglacial carbonates, 36Cl nuclide dating of substrate, mineralogical analysis of carbonates, geochemical analyses of carbonates and related water/ice bodies including particulates in the present ice, and frost weathering tests. The results will be put into the wider environmental context in order to determine the period when the glacierets in southeastern Alps were thick enough to cause regelation and, consequently, deposition of subglacial carbonates, and what was the glaciers behaviour throughout the Holocene in relation to palaeoclimate that favoured survival of subglacial carbonates. Finally, we will relate the results to the present rising temperatures and glacier retreat and provide the data on their future resolution.
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