Riss glaciation

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Extent of the Mindel and Riss glaciation (blue) in comparison with that of the Würm period

The Riss glaciation, Riss Glaciation, Riss ice age, Riss Ice Age, Riss glacial or Riss Glacial (

glaciation of the Pleistocene epoch in the traditional, quadripartite glacial classification of the Alps. The literature variously dates it to between about 300,000 to 130,000 years ago and 347,000 to 128,000 years ago. It coincides with the Saale glaciation of North Germany. The name goes back to Albrecht Penck and Eduard Brückner who named this cold period after the river Riss in Upper Swabia
in their three-volume work Die Alpen im Eiszeitalter ("The Alps in the Ice Age") published between 1901 and 1909.

Boundaries and division

The Riss glaciation was defined by Penck and Brückner as the Lower (Niedere) or Younger Old Moraines and Old Terminal Moraines High Terraces (Jüngere Altmoränen und Alt-Endmoränen-Hochterrassen). The

interstadials (ice retreats) and stadials (ice advances), and at least one hitherto unnamed warm period.[3]

The present-day division differs from the original Penck classification. The beginning of the Riss ice age, according to the 2002 Stratigraphic Table of Germany, was the end of the

MIS 6, 8 and 10, which would therefore place it about 350,000 and 120,000 years ago.[4] Excluded from the Riss glaciation is the so-called Old Riss (Ältere Riß),[5] the time of the greatest ice advance in the Alpine region: today it is referred to as the Haslach-Mindel complex
(in Bavaria and Austria), Hoßkirch complex (in Baden-Württemberg) or Great Glaciation in Switzerland.

The classification of ice ages in Switzerland varies from that used in the Bavarian and Austrian Alpine Foreland. The glaciation complex between the end of the Holstein and the beginning of the Eem interglacials is referred to as the Penultimate Ice Age and the Great Glaciation.[2] It is divided into two additional interstadials, the so-called Double Holstein Event of Meikirch (doppelte Holstein-Vorkommen von Meikirch), which is not identical, however, with the Holstein interglacial.[6]

During the period of maximum glaciation, ancient man (

Cro-Magnon man
settle these regions, in about 40,000 BC.

Sequence and extent of the Riss glaciation

Alpine Riss glaciation (in the north: the Saale) compared with the later Würm glaciation (in the north: the Weichselian)

At the beginning of the Riss ice age almost all of today's river valleys were created. The glaciation of the Alps, even before the Holstein interglacial and towards the end of the major glaciations, resulted in glaciers advancing in several phases far into the Alpine Foreland, further than all other known ice sheet advances,[5] and the main glaciers had established themselves along today's river valleys. During the Riss, glaciers advanced into the Bavarian and Austrian Alpine Foreland probably four times. The first two advances have not been confirmed with certainty because they are overlaid by the two stadials at the end of the Riss glaciation that extended well to the north.[7]

The ice sheet advances of the cold period were mostly well beyond the

Altmühl valley into the present day Danube
valley, a process that took place during the Riss glaciation. The double ridge of the type region (Doppelwallriß, with an outer and inner ridge) is a result of two superimposed sequences of glacial deposits which indicates that the Riss was subdivided into at least two stadials.

In the west the

River Danube to the area of the Swabian Jura. In Bavaria, the Riss moraines form a little subdivided countryside without bogs and lakes, where they are not covered by the younger deposits of the Würm glaciation. The gravels associated with the Riss moraines form the present high terraces of the Danube tributaries.[5]

During the Riss, the

the latter extending in each case to the Hausruck and Kobernauß Forest ridge (subalpine molasse).

References

  1. ^ Walter Freudenberger; Klaus Schwerd (1996), Geologische Karte von Bayern 1:500000 mit Erläuterungen. 1 Karte + Erläuterungen + 8 Beilagen (in German) (4th ed.), Munich: Bayrisches Geologisches Landesamt, pp. 238 ff
  2. ^ a b Ueli Reinmann (2004), "Auf den Spuren der Eiszeit im Raum Wangen a. A.: Neue Erkenntnisse auf Grund von bodenkundlichen Untersuchungen im Endmoränengebiet des Rhonegletschers" (PDF), Jahrbuch des Oberaargaus (in German), vol. 47, pp. 135–152[permanent dead link]
  3. ^ Litt; et al (2005) "Text"
  4. Maureen E. Raymo (2005), "A Plio-Pleistocene Stack of 57 Globally Distributed Benthic δ18O Records" (PDF), Paleoceanography (in German), vol. 20, archived from the original
    (PDF) on 2011-06-16, retrieved 2015-04-28
  5. ^
  6. ^ Habbe (2007) p. 80
  7. ^ Litt; et al (2005) "Table"
  8. ^ Eduard Stummer (1936). "Die interglazialen Seen von Salzburg" (PDF). Verhandlungen der Geologischen Bundesanstalt (4): 105 – via landesmuseum.at.
    Geologische Karte von Salzburg 1:200,000 "20, 19, 18 Vorstoßschotter; Grund- und Endmoräne; Hochterrasse [Riss]". Geologische Karten online - Texte. 2009. Archived from the original on 2014-10-17 – via geomap.geolba.ac.at.
  9. ^ In the area of Straßwalchen the Riss edge and terminal moraines of the Irrsee Glacier lie at a height of 500–650 m above sea level (AA), The Mindel moraines at around {{Subst:Formatnum:700}} m. GKÖ 64 Straßwalchen und 65 Mondsee.

Literature

External links