In orogenic belts, drainage divides and variations thereof are known to have profound impacts on climate, biodiversity, as well as on the organisation of human society. However, the evolution of the landscape and drainage of the Central Alps remains enigmatic. The drainage of the Alps was perpendicular to the orogenic belt 25 Ma ago, but, nowadays, the Rhône and the Rhine run parallel to the belt. It is not clear whether tectonic uplift or erodibility contrasts were the dominant mechanism driving this reorganisation and what threshold values are needed to trigger such reorganisation. The aim of this study is thus to understand what controls the drainage system of the Central Alps and the reorganisation from an orogen-perpendicular to an orogen-parallel pattern.
Numerical landscape evolution modelling will be conducted with the goSPL code (Salles et al., 2020) to discriminate factors that can trigger a drainage reorganisation and its timing. These results will then be linked with the tectonic evolution of the Alps. The envisaged results would allow a better understanding of the evolution of orogenic belts and the links between crustal tectonics, lithological structure of the orogenic belt, surface processes, sediment routing and climate.
The project will be conducted in Fribourg and led by Valentin Rime (UniFr). The supervising professor will be Prof. Ismay Vénice Akker (UniFr) and the project will be conducted in collaboration with Prof. Fritz Schlunegger (UniBe), Prof. Marco Herwegh (UniBe). This project will require coding in python language, but previous knowledge of coding is not a requirement and can be learned during the project.
Advisors: Dr. Valentin Rime, Prof. Ismay Vénice Akker, Prof. Fritz Schlunegger
Specialities: GEOL
University: FR