Die Küste, 74 ICCE (2008), 1-17
5
• Göteborg
Schweden
Dänemark
Dogger Bjr*
»um»!» . ~ ,a _4
K pei he fm
Saale Icesheet
England
iMMI
Amtier dim
e
Bremen
HmM. Bad*,
y'
Holland
Deutschland
Aài
Gent
1
• Goteborg
Schweden
Danemark
Dogger Bank
# A V (
Kopenhagen
WeiseNan
Icesheet
Weichselian Icesheet
^ m s'&mi
England
Anttierdem
Holland
[ StefWi
Deutschland
Gent
Fig. 3: Maximum extent of the inland ice sheets during Saale- and Weichselian glaciations in middle-Europe.
The lower courses of the rivers Ems, Weser and Elbe were forming a common spillway into the
North Atlantic via the North Sea (Berner and Streif, 2000; modified)
the Elsterian and the Saalian glaciations, respectively, typical marine-brackish coastal sediments
were deposited. With the exception of some deep embayments into the mainland, the
spatial distribution of these sediments almost describes the recent Southern North Sea coastline
(Streif, 1990).
The ice cover of the subsequent youngest cold stage, the Weichselian glaciation (117,000-10,200
BP), did not reach the German Bight (Berner and Streif, 2000, Fig. 3). During the
last glacial maximum (LGM), when the Weichselian ice cover had a thickness of approximately
3,000 m and its maximum extent, the global sea level was approximately 120 m lower
than the present sea level (see Fig. 4). The entire North Sea area was exposed, the coastline
was shifted approximately 600 km to the West (Streif, 2002), and periglacial processes left
their traces in the deposits. In the hinterland, huge amounts of meltwater eroded a wide
valley along the southern glacial front (Schwarz, 1999) which today is the stream bed of the
River Elbe. Together with the rivers Ems, Weser and Eider it formed a glacial spillway which
emptied into the North Sea basin (Fig. 3) forming the wide Helgoland glacial valley (Figge,
