During the Ice Age ( from 1 million years ago until as recently as 15000 years ago) mighty glaciers coming from the Scandinavian mountains reached Schleswig-Holstein . They formed and shaped the landscape of this area in many different ways, all of which can still be studied today. The 5 parts of this project look into the reasons for the climatic change that led to the glaciation of the the Baltic Sea and Northern Germany as well as Poland and the Baltic States. Furthermore does it deal with the various processes taking place under, around and in front of the masses of slowly moving ice. Finally it presents a picture of today´s surface : a clear strip pattern of landscape types starting from the cliffs of the Baltic sea through moraine hills and flat sander beds to the marshlands and the mud flats of the North Sea coast.

Interior forces - coming from the interior of the Earth- such as volcanic activity and the movement of continents and exterior forces like wind, rain, ice and changing temperatures have shaped and are still shaping the surface of the Earth.

How can climatic change be explained? How does glacial ice form? What does it consist of? Why does it move?

 
Northern Germany during the Ice Age

This part deals with glacial deposits such as moraines, sand beds deposited through water, tunnel valleys beneath the ice, Urstrom valleys, fjords and other phenomena that form the glacial landscape typical of Schleswig-Holstein.

 
Post-glacial processes

This part of the project comes in 3 languages: German, English, Russian (adjust browser to cyrillic script if necessary). After the ice melted the sea level rose, and the steady change of the tides allowed the marshes to form along the North Sea coast. The Baltic Sea level also rose, there are however no tides perceptible here. A further reason why the sea level rose (at least relatively) lies in the fact that Schleswig-Holstein had been raised through the masses of ice pressing on Scandinavia, and now - afterthe pressure of the ice had gone - Schleswig-Holstein began to sink again.

 
Schleswig-Holstein today: a geological strip pattern

Today Schleswig-Holstein is characterized by a sequence of different landscapes, all formed through glaciation or post-glacial processe. Starting in the east, we are in a hilly area consisting of moraines. We then come to a very level area consisting of sander beds, which were formed by flowing water that melted from the rim of the glaciers. Older moraines of the last but one glaciation period follow. In the west, forming the North Sea coast we find extensive, absolutely level areas called marshes. The mud flats further west are already part of the North Sea and can only be seen at ebb tide. Finally a further ring of older moraines forms a of islands.