SEDIMENT BUDGET OF PLIOCENE AND QUATERNARY UNCONSOLIDATED DEPOSITS OF THE RHINE GLACIER AREA, SWISS MIDLANDS AND THE UPPER RHINE GRABEN

The Pliocene and Quaternary unconsolidated rocks of the Alpenrhein valley / Bodensee amphitheatre, Hochrhein, Swabian terrace landscape, Swiss Midlands and the Upper Rhine Graben together with its Alpine drainage areas represent an almost closed denudation-accumulation system. Based on a newly developed combined stratigraphy valid in all five landsystems and an extensive data base (e.g. drillings, outcrop studies, mapping, seismics, pollen analysis) the sediment volumes of a minimum of four glacial megacycles will be quantified in a project within the ICDP framework by using an electronical data base and GIS techniques. New insights are expected into the morphodynamic response of the Alps to climate change and the interplay with their uplift, the mechanisms of the growth and decay of Alpine foreland glaciers and the morphogenesis of the Alpine foreland inclusive changes in the drainage pattern. The sediment volumes will be compared with heavy mineral distributions and dating results to identify sediment sources in the Alps and shifts of the glacial and fluvial drainage systems over time. This linkage will also allow for a control of the number and magnitude of glacier advances into the Alpine foreland and the Quaternary denudation history of the Alps. A great number of scientific and commercial drillings have been analysed and put together in a sequence stratigraphic framework. The regional interconnection of these point data is based on the identification of discontinuity surfaces which define the sediment volumes of the various glacial megacycles. Until now, we quantified three megacycles (MEG, Riss, Würm) in Upper Swabia and the Upper Rhine Graben with the stratigraphic base level concept. To control the results of our litho- and eventstratigraphic approach, we will use palynological and heavy mineral investigations. Further, we started to collect samples for OSL and TIMS U/Th dating.