I want to know the approximate age of any gully, i.e. the initial time of its formation. Likewise, as if I want to calculate the beginning of the erosion of any area.
Thank you in advance.
Actually one can not determine exact age of landforms since landforms are under continuous developmental process- dwindling in case of structural relief and broadening in case of valley - however, one can look into its sequential change history with denudation chronology that can be lead to initial stage of landforms, albeit, it is hypothetical.
Dear Mr. Roy,
landforms in modern-day geology need the application of age-dating methods such as radiocarbon-dating of anthropogenic remains and calcretes and tuffa, lichenology of landslides and dentrochronology of drift wood. OSL dating of quartz and feldspar in terraces is another method. There are more advanced methods making use of cosmochemical processes but their application is often impeded by the proper objects of study and the availability of the devices and practical experience of the applicant. But prior to all of that doing the ravine or gull has to be properly mapped and cross-sectioned as to its landform types in terms of colluvial, alluvial and fluvial processes. I did this in temperate and tropical humid as well as semiarid and arid morphoclimatic zones. And it worked perfectly well.
I wish you all the best
Harald G. Dill
I would like to register my different opinion about the method put forwarded and duly applied by respected Harald G. Dill, these methods can be helpful to determine age of geo-material as individual and not the landform as a whole conspicuous unit since it is an outcome of different series of or cycles of erosion, geology etc. however, the methods suggested by Professor are more scientific and will help certainly to determine the age of landform. Thanks !
Dear Dr. Pawar,
I do not see any approach in your opinion which would allow us to carry out absolute age dating. The methods mentioned in my answer are proven on a global basis and I used them successfully by myself. You have to single out the technique most applicable to the substrate and the interval within which the geomorphological-sedimentological processes leading to the landforms took place. Please consult my list of publications and you will find some papers as well as the literature cited in the reference list of the pertinent papers.
Best regards
H.G.Dill
Markus Dotterweich and our collegues from Leuven (Belgium) have published several papers on dating gullie. Basically you need to date the accumulation of sediment in fans at the outlet of the gully, which gives you an indirect age. Please have a look at the following papers:
Dotterweich, M. (2005). "High-resolution reconstruction of a 1300 year old gully system in northern Bavaria, Germany: a basis for modelling long-term human-induced landscape evolution." Holocene 15(7): 994-1005.
Dotterweich, M., A. Schmitt, G. Schmidtchen and H.-R. Bork (2003). "Quantifying historical gully erosion in northern Bavaria." Catena 50: 135-150.
Vanwalleghem, T., H. R. Bork, J. Poesen, M. Dotterweich, G. Schmidtchen, J. Deckers, S. Scheers and M. Martens (2006). "Prehistoric and Roman gullying in the European loess belt: a case study from central Belgium." Holocene 16(3): 393-401.
Thank you all.
Thanks, dear Hoffmann Sir for the reference of related papers.
Dear Mr. Roy, another way that you can date gullies is by surveying with the local residents/farmers, when the gully started to be formed. You will get some very interesting feedback from those people. You can also survey old air photographs and/or satellite images, from differents years, especially if you manage to find some ones, before the gully has been formed. I hope I have been of some help to you.
Best wishes,
Prof. Antonio Guerra - Department of Geography - Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, currently visiting professor, at the Faculty of Science and Engineering,
University of Wolverhamnpton - UK
Thank You Guerra Sir,
It will be cost-effective and easy technique to get proper result.
Thanks again.
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