Contemporary Geomorphic Processes in Quaternary Science INQUA Congress in Reno - 24 July, 2003

Date: 1 September 2003

R e p o r t

At the 16th. INQUA Congress, held in Reno, Nevada, from July 23-30, 2003, the IAG was represented by a poster session entitled Contemporary Geomorphic Processes in Quaternary Science (Session 2: July 24, 1:30-8 p.m.) Piotr Migon (Poland) and Olav Slaymaker (Canada) presided over the event. Twenty two high quality posters were displayed, of which 8 were from USA, 4 from Italy, 2 from Germany, 2 from Canada and 1 each from Argentina, China, New Zealand, Norway, Poland and UK. They can be broadly divided into two groups.

The first group emphasised the complex interplay of contemporary processes which makes reconstruction of past Quaternary environments so challenging. They included actual/proposed measurements/measurement programs of rates of change in addition to a variety of morphological evidences. Soldati et al. outlined an ambitious national Italian project on paleoclimatic reconstruction, based on the assumption that slope instability processes are geomorphological indicators of climate change. Leonard et al. discussed paleoclimatic implications of rock glacier development in Colorado on the basis of three time scales of survey and measurement. Molnia described recent rapid retreat of the Bering Glacier, Alaska and showed the importance of glacier disarticulation in complicating the relation between glacier retreat and climate. Barnard et al. discussed paraglacial processes in the Indian and Nepalese Himalayas, and proposed a catastrophic series of paraglacial events, clearly climate related, alternating with low energy periods of fluvial reworking. Webb et al. showed late Quaternary debris flow/river interaction in Utah, proposing that glacial and interglacial climates favour bedrock downcutting and interglacials with monsoon climate favour debris flow aggradation, whereas Comerci et al. analysed ground subsidence in Italy, supplementing their post-glacial stratigraphic record with detailed measurements of ground subsidence in the Como urban area since 1955. Finally, Laemermann-Barthel et al. discussed a proposed program to establish a sediment budget for the Swiss Alps and the upper Rhine.

A second group of posters emphasised the examination of morphology and used maps, remotely sensed imagery, GIS and stratigraphic evidence more extensively than the first group. Process and process rates in these studies were more inferential than in the studies in the first group. Bartolini addressed the interaction between rock uplift, local relief and exhumation in the Northern Apennines in the last few million years. Thomas et al. discussed landscape response to environmental change in Queensland, emphasising the variable time lags which are still unresolved. Mills considered topographic control of alluvial fans in North Carolina from early Pleistocene to Holocene. Migon raised critical questions about the efficacy of Quaternary cryoplanation, and suggested that significant remodelling of periglacial upland surfaces in the Quaternary has been seriously exaggerated. However, Aarseth and Fossen described new cryoplanation surfaces from Norway which, they report, are of Quaternary origin. Mäusbacher et al. examined subrosion depressions in Germany and discovered significant impact of Bronze Age and Iron Age anthropogenic influence on the sedimentology and palynology; Paulen et al. considered deformation structures in glaciolacustrine sediments in the Peace River valley, Alberta and Kovanen and Slaymaker demonstrated GIS aided delineation of glacial imprints over the surface of the Okanogan Lobe in Washington State. Dramis and Guglielmin discussed rock glacier development in Italy, noting the importance of discontinuous processes. Kite et al. documented an unusual algific talus in West Virginia and showed the importance of this environment as a paleo-refugium over the past 10,000 years. Large-magnitude geomorphic events were addressed by Hermanns et al. (massive rock slope failures in the southern Andes), Roberts (the variety of lahars on Mt. Shasta) and Manville (late Quaternary megafloods in New Zealand). Fluvial issues were discussed by Rowland et al. who showed the importance of tie channels on flood plains in Alaska, Louisiana and Papua New Guinea and noted that in all three systems, both the planform and the cross-sectional morphology of the channels show remarkable similarities over scales which vary by an order of magnitude; and Yang et al. plotted the changing activity of the Changjiang River in China. over the Quaternary period.

Olav Slaymaker, Professor (Department of Geography, The University of British Columbia)
Piotr Migon, Professor (Department of Geography and Regional Development, University of Wroclaw)