<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> In this study, we present chemical denudation rates derived from measuring the dissolved load of an alpine catchment located in Salzburg, Austria. The catchment has a drainage area of about 7 km2 and is predominantly covered by limestone- rich glacial deposits and carbonate rocks that are characteristic of the Northern Calcareous Alps. To obtain catchment-wide chemical denudation rates, we integrated discharge time series that were measured by a permanent water gauge of the Austrian Service for Torrent and Avalanche Control to compute the total discharge of the investigated catchment over a period of one year. During the same period, samples were taken during several campaigns to consider variations of the dissolved load. Samples were collected at high and low runoff conditions to study the effect of precipitation and at different locations along the tributaries to account for lithological variations of the river beds on the dissolved load. For the investigation period of one year, 2.97 ×106 m3 of discharge was measured at the catchment outlet. The summed cation-concentration varies between about 85 mg/l for dry-conditions and 75 mg/l for rainy-conditions at the gauge and consists predominantly of Ca2+and Mg2+ cations. Based on the total discharge of the river integrated over a period of one year, and the average dissolved load determined from water samples, we obtained a chemical denudation rate of 0.094 mm/a. The results imply that chemical denudation is a significant driver for redistributing mass in carbonate-dominated catchments and might be the dominant erosional process in such settings.</abstract>

In this study, we present chemical denudation rates derived from measuring the dissolved load of an alpine catchment located in Salzburg, Austria. The catchment has a drainage area of about 7 km2 and is predominantly covered by limestone- rich glacial deposits and carbonate rocks that are characteristic of the Northern Calcareous Alps. To obtain catchment-wide chemical denudation rates, we integrated discharge time series that were measured by a permanent water gauge of the Austrian Service for Torrent and Avalanche Control to compute the total discharge of the investigated catchment over a period of one year. During the same period, samples were taken during several campaigns to consider variations of the dissolved load. Samples were collected at high and low runoff conditions to study the effect of precipitation and at different locations along the tributaries to account for lithological variations of the river beds on the dissolved load. For the investigation period of one year, 2.97 ×106 m3 of discharge was measured at the catchment outlet. The summed cation-concentration varies between about 85 mg/l for dry-conditions and 75 mg/l for rainy-conditions at the gauge and consists predominantly of Ca2+and Mg2+ cations. Based on the total discharge of the river integrated over a period of one year, and the average dissolved load determined from water samples, we obtained a chemical denudation rate of 0.094 mm/a. The results imply that chemical denudation is a significant driver for redistributing mass in carbonate-dominated catchments and might be the dominant erosional process in such settings.

Chemical denudation rates of a small torrential catchment in the Northern Calcareous Alps

Austrian Journal of Earth Sciences

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

In this study, we present chemical denudation rates derived from measuring the dissolved load of an alpine catchment located in Salzburg, Austria. The...

Chemical denudation rates of a small torrential catchment in the Northern Calcareous Alps

Published Online: Sep 06, 2018

Page range: 1 - 14

Received: Dec 09, 2017

Accepted: Sep 03, 2018

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17738/ajes.2018.0001

Keywords
denudation rates, Northern Calcareous Alps, mass balance, chemical denudation

© 2018 Georg Trost, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Chemical denudation rates of a small torrential catchment in the Northern Calcareous Alps

Published Online: Sep 06, 2018

Page range: 1 - 14

Received: Dec 09, 2017

Accepted: Sep 03, 2018

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17738/ajes.2018.0001

Keywordsdenudation rates, Northern Calcareous Alps, mass balance, chemical denudation

© 2018 Georg Trost, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Keywords
denudation rates, Northern Calcareous Alps, mass balance, chemical denudation