Erosion in alpine landscapes occurs as a result of processes such as glaciation, cracking of rocks through freeze/thaw action, rockfall and landsliding, and river erosion. In a new study due to be published in the February 2015 issue of E&PSL, Matthew Fox, Kerry Leith and others present a new technique to calculate elevations at which erosion is occurring in a catchment from sand collected in a river bed at the catchment outlet. This provides unique insight into the rate of various erosion processes, and suggests that glacial erosion in the Codera watershed (northern Italian Alps) may have peaked more than 400,000 years ago. You can read more about their findings on the E&PSL website, or from Kerry's ResearchGate homepage.