Susan Ivy-Ochs

Susan Ivy-Ochs

Dr Susan Ivy-Ochs
Position and Institution: Lecturer
ETH Zurich

Contact details:

Labor f. Ionenstrahlphysik (LIP)
HPK H 27
Schafmattstr. 20
8093 Zuerich
Phone: +41 44 633 38 86
Email: ivy@phys.ethz.ch

Position in project: Project researcher

Dr Ivy-Ochs will co-lead, along with Dr Lukas, discussion and evaluation of dated sites, with particular attention to two main issues. Firstly, the sampling ‘errors’ which often occur when dating is attempted on a glacier deposit. For example, the measured date of a moraine, while precise, may be inaccurate due to the duration of moraine construction, stabilization, or reworking. Thus the first task of the Geochronology component is to evaluate whether or not the published ages (based on sample details, moraine morphology, age distributions etc. on each landform reflect a ‘good date’ for that landform.

Research interests related to the project’s scope:

Her research is focused on the use of the cosmogenic nuclides 10Be, 26Al and 36Cl to glean fundamental information about the timing and rates of geomorphological processes and how such processes may have been affected by past variations in climate. In the Alps her interest is in the dating of landscape changing events, primarily glacier advances as recorded by moraines (especially LGM, Lateglacial and Holocene); and large landslides.

Relevant publications:

  • Hippe K, Ivy-Ochs S, Kober F, Zasadni J, Wieler R, Wacker L, Kubik PW, C. Schlüchter C, Chronology of Lateglacial ice flow reorganization and deglaciation in the Gotthard Pass area, Central Swiss Alps, based on cosmogenic 10Be and in situ 14C. Quaternary Geochronology in press.
     
  • Ivy-Ochs S, Kerschner H, Maisch M, Christl M, Kubik PW, Schlüchter C, Latest Pleistocene and Holocene glacier variations in the European Alps. Quaternary Science Reviews 28, 2137-2149 (2009).
     
  • Ivy-Ochs S, Kerschner H, Reuther A, Preusser F, Heine K, Maisch M, Kubik PW, Schlüchter C, Chronology of the last glacial cycle in the northern European Alps. Journal of Quaternary Science 23, 559-575 (2008).
     
  • Kerschner H, Ivy-Ochs S, Palaeoclimate from glaciers: Examples from the Eastern Alps during the Alpine Lateglacial and early Holocene. Global and Planetary Change 60, 58-71 (2008).
     
  • Ivy-Ochs S, Kerschner H, Schlüchter C, Cosmogenic nuclides and the dating of Lateglacial and early Holocene glacier variations: The Alpine perspective. Quaternary International 164-165, 53-63 (2007).