Research article E&G Quaternary Sci. J., 68, 53–73, 2019 https://doi.org/10.5194/egqsj-68-53-2019 © Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. New chronological constraints on the timing of Late Pleistocene glacier advances in northern Switzerland Dorian Gaar1,a, Hans Rudolf Graf2, and Frank Preusser3 1Institute of Geological Sciences and Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Baltzerstrasse 1+3, 3012 Bern, Switzerland 2Dr. von Moos AG, Dorfstrasse 40, 8214 Gächlingen, Switzerland 3Institute of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Freiburg, Albertstraße 23b, 79104 Freiburg, Germany apresent address: Baugeologie und Geo-Bau-Labor AG, Bolettastrasse 1, 7000 Chur, Switzerland Correspondence: Frank Preusser (
[email protected]) Relevant dates: Received: 10 January 2018 – Revised: 23 April 2019 – Accepted: 15 May 2019 – Published: 21 June 2019 How to cite: Gaar, D., Graf, H. R., and Preusser, F.: New chronological constraints on the timing of Late Pleistocene glacier advances in northern Switzerland, E&G Quaternary Sci. J., 68, 53–73, https://doi.org/10.5194/egqsj-68-53-2019, 2019. Abstract: Deposits of the Reuss Glacier in the central northern Alpine foreland of Switzerland are dated using luminescence methodology. Methodological considerations on partial bleaching and fading correction of different signals imply the robustness of the results. An age of ca. 25 ka for sediment directly overly- ing basal lodgement till corresponds well with existing age constraints for the last maximal position of glaciers of the northern Swiss Alpine Foreland. Luminescence ages imply an earlier advance of Reuss Glacier into the lowlands during Marine Isotope Stage 4.