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Dating Disappearing Ice with Cosmogenic Nuclides

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Cosmogenic nuclides are remarkably well suited to dating glacial landforms. Exposure dating of boulders on moraines and of glacially sculpted bedrock allows the determination of the ages of former ice margins, from which past glaciations can be temporally constrained. Where moraines are lacking or are poorly preserved, outwash is dated with depth profile dating. Two-nuclide methods can be used to determine the ages of buried till. Multinuclide measurements of bedrock ages also provide insights into periods of non-erosive ice coverage and can be used to identify regions with selective linear erosion. Of particular interest is the use of cosmogenic nuclides to assess rates of glacier retreat and glacial erosion.

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December 2025 --The Variscan Orogeny in Europe – Understanding Supercontinent Formation

The Variscan orogen formed between 380 and 300 million years ago through several accretionary and collisional cycles, culminating with the construction of the Pangea supercontinent. This process occurred via sequential opening and closure of oceanic basins, synchronous detachment of Gondwana derived continental ribbons, and their outboard amalgamation onto the Laurussia margin. The Variscan orogen is rather unique compared with other orogenic belts on Earth: its overthickened and dominantly magmatic crust in the central belt, surprisingly minor mantle involvement in the magmatic and geodynamic processes, coherent and pulsed magmatism along the collision suture, and its complex accretionary history. Because its final product, Pangea, is the youngest and best-understood supercontinent on Earth, the Variscan orogeny offers clues for understanding the mechanisms of supercontinent formation.