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[[File:EisrandlagenNorddeutschland.jpg|thumb|350px|Maximum extent (Drenthe stadium) of the Saale complex (yellow line). The red line shows the greatest extent of the younger [[Weichselian glaciation]].]]
The '''Saale glaciation''' or '''Saale Glaciation''', sometimes referred to as the '''Saale cold period''' ({{lang-de|Saale-Kaltzeit}}) , '''Saale complex''' (''Saale-Komplex'') or '''Saale glacial stage''' (''Saale-Glazial'', colloquially also the ''Saale-Eiszeit'' or ''Saale-Zeit''), covers the middle of the three large glaciations in Northern Europe and the northern parts of Eastern, Central and Western Europe by the Scandinavian Inland Ice Sheet between the oder [[Elster glaciation]] and the younger [[Weichselian glaciation]].
== Age and definitions ==
It succeeded the [[Holstein interglacial]] and was followed by the [[Eemian interglacial]]. The Saale complex is currently estimated, depending on the source, as existing from around 300,000 to 130,000 years ago or 347,000 to 128,000 years ago (duration: around 219,000 years), roughly contemporaneous with the glaciation of the [[Riss Glacial]] in the [[Alpine region]].<ref name="Litt"/>. The actual "[[ice age]]" includes only part of the Saale glaciation or Saale complex. The first cold phase (Fuhne glacial) at the start of the Saale complexes is separated by a warmer period (Dömnitz interglacial) from the actual Saale "ice age". The term "Saale Ice Age" or "Saale Glacial" thus has 2 meanings in the literature; on the one hand it just refers to the phase in which the glacier advanced into [[North Germany]]; on the other hand it refers to the whole Saale complex. The terms are frequently interchanged in the literature.<ref group="Anmerkung">A good example of the interchangeability of the terms is the now rather older standard work, ''Das Quartär Deutschlands'', by Leopold Benda (ed.) Verlag Bornsträger Stuttgart dating to 1995. Here the Saale complex in the individual articles of this volume is variously described as the Saale cold period (''Saale-Kaltzeit''), Saale Glacial [Stage] (''Saale-Glazial''), Saale Complex (''Saale-Komplex'') and Saale Ice Age (''Saaleeiszeit''). It should also be noted that the term Saale Ice Age (''Saaleeiszeit'') is used by one of the authors, [[Lothar Eissmann]], in the sence of Saale complex (i.e. including the Fuhne cold period and Dömnitz warm period), not particularly restricted to the the actual glacial period.</ref>
The Saale corresponds temporally to the [[Wolstonian Stage]] in the [[British Isles]] and the [[Illinoian Stage]] in [[North America]].
== Subdivisions ==
The upper part of the Saale complex (''obere Teil des Saale-Komplexes'') is characterised in North Germany by three great glacial advances (possibly even four in Schleswig-Holstein<ref name="Stephan"/>). They are usually called the:
* Warthe Stage or Stadium (''Warthe-Stadium'')
* Drenthe Stage or Stadium (''Drenthe-Stadium'')
** Drenthe II Phase (''Jüngere Drenthe'')
** Drenthe I Phase (''Haupt-Drenthe'')
There are no indisputable traces in northern Germany of clear thermomers ([[interstadial]]s, intervals) between these advances.
In the work by Litt et al. (2007) focussed on the southern perimeter of the North German glaciations, the upper part of the Saale complex is subdivided as follows:
* Warthe Stage (''Warthe-Stadium'')
* Seyda Interval (''Seyda-Intervall'')
* Drenthe Stage (''Drenthe-Stadium'')
** Leipzig Phase (''Leipzig-Phase'')
** Pomßen Interval (''Pomßen-Intervall'')
** Zeitz Phase (''Zeitz-Phase'')
* (Delitzsch-Phase<ref group="Anmerkung">Die Delitzsch-Phase wird nicht zum Drenthe-Stadium gerechnet, sondern geht diesem voraus, s. Litt et al. 2007, S. 38</ref>)
The Drenthe Stage corresponds to the maximum extent of glaciation during the Saale complex. During the last stage, the Warthe Stage, glaciers only covered northeast [[Lower Saxony]] (parts of the [[Lüneburg Heath]]), the [[Altmark]], the [[Elbe]] valley downstream of [[Magdeburg]] and the region east of it (c.f. [[Südlicher Landrücken]]), so that these areas are [[geomorphologically]] younger than the [[Northwest German Plain]], but older and exhibiting more surface weathering than the much later [[Young Drift]] areas of the [[Weichselian glaciation]] in northeast Germany. The areas last covered by the Saale cold period, roughly the [[Westphalian Bight]], a large part of [[Lower Saxony]] and [[Saxony-Anhalt]], south [[Brandenburg]], or the [[Leipzig Bay]] and [[Lusatia]] in Saxony, are calle the Old Drift Landscapes (''Altmoränenlandschaften''). They were further shaped and changed during the later Weichselian cold period by [[periglacial]] processes such as wind-borne [[sand]] and [[loess]]. The major ''[[urstromtal]]'' associated with the
Saale glacial stage is the [[Breslau-Magdeburg-Bremen Urstromtal]], which was not subsequently covered by ice.
== See also ==
* [Ice age]]
== References ==
<references>
<ref name="Stephan">Hans-Jürgen Stephan: ''I. Schleswig-Holstein.'' In: Leopold Benda (ed.): ''Das Quartär Deutschlands.'' pp.1-13, Borntraeger, Berlin, Stuttgart, 1995</ref>
<ref name="Litt">Litt et al. (2007: pp.34ff)</ref>
</references>
== Footnotes ==
<references group="Anmerkung"/>
== Literature ==
* Thomas Litt, Karl-Ernst Behre, Klaus-Dieter Meyer, Hans-Jürgen Stephan und Stefan Wansa: [http://quaternary-science.publiss.net/issues/54/articles/763 ''Stratigraphische Begriffe für das Quartär des norddeutschen Vereisungsgebietes'']. Eiszeitalter und Gegenwart (Quaternary Science Journal), 56(1/2): 7-65, Hanover, 2007. {{ISSN|0424-7116}} {{DOI|10.3285/eg.56.1-2.02}}
* Leopold Benda (ed.): ''Das Quartär Deutschlands.'' 408 pp., Borntraeger, Berlin, Stuttgart, 1995 ISBN 3-443-01031-8
{{North German glaciations}}
[[Category:Quaternary]]
[[Category:Ice ages]]
[[ca:Glaciació de Riss]]
[[da:Saale-istiden]]
[[de:Günz-Kaltzeit]]
[[fi:Saale-jääkausi]]
[[fr:Glaciation de Riss]]
[[it:Glaciazione Riss]]
[[nn:Saale-istida]]
[[pl:Zlodowacenie środkowopolskie]]
[[pt:Glaciação Riss]]
[[ru:Днепровское оледенение]]
[[sk:Ris]]
[[uk:Рісс]]
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