SURFACE SHAPES OF THE LAST GLACIAL PERIOD
The last cold age, the Pleistocene, began more than 2,500,000 years ago and ended with the disintegration of the closed ice cover of the Vistula / Würme Ice Age, which covered large parts of the Scandinavia around 9,000 years ago. In the northern foothills of the Alps, the four most recent cold periods after rivers are known as the Günz, Mindel, Riss and Würme ice ages.
In northern Germany, a glacial period corresponding to the Alpine Günze Age has not been proven with certainty. The subsequent ice advances in the Elster, Saale and Weichsel ice ages presumably reshaped these early glacial traces.
The great Pleistocene ice advances have shaped the relief decisively, whereby one can determine differences between northern Germany and the Alpine region. In the northern glacial it is mainly accumulations of fine and also very coarse material, for example boulders, which were transported by the ice masses advancing from Scandinavia. These accumulations have been shaped by erosion and glacial valleys. The pre-glacial relief was largely covered by moraine rubble.
In the Alps, on the other hand, the glaciers had a clearing effect and thus created the characteristic high mountain relief. Due to the lowering of the climatic snow line, valley glaciers spread, whose glacier tongues also covered the foothills of the Alps. The terminal moraine lines mark their furthest foray today.
Basically comparable to northern Germany, a treasure trove of glacial forms of particular regularity arose in the foothills of the Alps, the so-called glacial series. With each advance of the glacier, the ice spread over deposits from the previous glacial period. A bed moraine formed under the glacier, on the edge of the ice (standstill position) a terminal moraine, in front of it gravel plains piled up by escaping meltwater (in northern Germany: sander) and finally drainage channels (in northern Germany: glacial valleys). The meltwater collected in the latter. In northern Germany they united with the water of the rivers coming from the south to flow into the sea parallel to the edge of the ice. For more information about the continent of Europe, please check pharmacylib.com.
