Overview

The sedimentary infills of glacially overdeepened valleys are, together with glacial geomorphology, the best preserved but poorly investigated direct archives of extents and ages of past glaciations in and around mountain ranges. DOVE intends to recover sediment cores from glacially overdeepened structures at several complementing locations within the Alps and their foreland. Divided into two phases (Phase 1: Northern and Eastern Alps, Phase 2: Southern and Western Alps), the drilling of locations distributed over six alpine countries are planned. The project focuses on several aspects of environmental dynamics during the Quaternary, especially on the glaciation, vegetation, and landscape history. By a combined effort of scientists from across the whole Alps and even beyond, DOVE will apply interdisciplinary state-of-the-art concepts and methods, to decipher the spatio-temporal impact of the numerous glaciations on the Alps.

Scientific objectives

• dynamics of Quaternary glaciations of the Alps
• the impact of atmospheric circulation patterns on ice build-up along and across the Alps
• how mountain ranges and their foreland have been shaped by repetitive glaciations
• the impact of multiple glaciations on Alpine ecosystems.

Approaches

• geophysical surveys to describe the geometry of overdeepenings
• downhole logging, sedimentological, and geochemical analyses to characterize the deposits
• combination of different approaches to establish the chronological framework
• correlation of all analysis across the entire DOVE sites to obtain the panalpine comparison
• thermochronometry for quantifying the rates and timing of mountain topographic development
• biological proxies to reconstruct the history of climate and mountain life in the Alps

Phase 1 and 2

The DOVE program is designed to be executed in two phases. DOVE Phase 1 comprises boreholes along the Northern and Eastern Alpine front. This will be followed by DOVE Phase 2 that targets the Western and Southern margins of the Alps. This will allow a completion of the transalpine datasets.

Drill sites of phase 1

Two of the main DOVE Phase 1 sites are in the overdeepened distal part of the Rhine Glacier lobe (BASA, TANN). These two new drill cores will be complemented by the analysis of three legacy cores previously drilled into overdeepenings of the Isar-Loisach Glacier (SCHA), the Salzach Glacier (FREI), and the Traun Glacier (BADA).

Direct involved institutions

Institute of Geological Science, University of Bern (CH)

Institute of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Freiburg (DE)

Landesamt für Geologie, Rohstoffe und Bergbau (LGRB) (DE)

Department of Civil Engineering and Natural Hazards, BOKU Vienna (AT)

Department for Seismic, Gravimetry, and Magnetics, LIAG (DE)

Department for Rock Physics and Borehole Geophysics, LIAG (DE)

Bayrisches Landesamt für Umwelt (LfU) (DE)

For involved members, go to Team

Funding of the project

International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP) (INT)
Eidgenössisches Nuklearsicherheitsinspektorat (ENSI) (CH)
Nationale Genossenschaft für die Lagerung radioaktiver Abfälle (NAGRA)
Leibniz-Institut für Angewandte Geophysik (LIAG) (DE)
Landesamt für Geologie, Rohstoffe und Bergbau (LGRB) (DE)
University of Bern (CH)

University of Freiburg (DE)

University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna (BOKU) (AT)

Geologische Bundesanstalt (GBA) (AT)

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) (DE)