Velpke is a little village near Wolfsburg.
Near Velpke there is the "Velpker Schweiz" and there you can
find Räth-sandstone which is about 200 million years old. This
sandstone was a popular building material in the last centuries. In
the middle of the 20th century the requirements for this material
decreased. So the So the formerly stone pits were closed and the
groundwater filled them up. Now there are a few lakes in the
"Velpker Schweiz".
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The "Krebsloch" |
Northern part of the
Krebslochs |
One of this lakes is the "Kuhloch". There you can understand how
the glaciers of the ice ages left the geomorphological structure
"glacial scratches" Glacial scratches are a kind of abrasion wich
give information about the moving direction of glaciers. Based on
this scratches it is possible to reconstruct the moving direction
of a glacier and especially for the analysis of inland ice it is
very important. The inland ice did not shape the typical valleys
and by mapping the glacier scratches it is possible to reconsruct
the spreading of the ice. Compared with plutonic or metamorphic
rock (e.g. granite or gneiss) the sandstone as a sediment is
relatively soft. The glacier had a ground moraine at the bottom of
the ice with lots of crushed rocks and rubble. So with this rubble
the glacier could scratch the sandstone. The scratches have
different directions and because of the different orientation of
the scractches it is possible for northern germany to reconstruct
from wich direction the ice came and to which direction it
flew.
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Scratches near the "Kuhloch" |
Scale for the
scratches |
The main direction of the scratches in Velpke is
from NNE to SSW. These scratches are probably from the
Drenthe-stadium of the Saale ice age. So the scratches are about
230.000 to 200.000 years old. The scratches of Velpke are
geological very rare in Lower Saxony and so they are a natural
monument. But now to the tasks which must be solved for the
approval of the log.
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Moor Between Kuhloch and
Krebsloch |
Stratification at the
Krebsloch |
1) Take a picture of you in front of the lake "Kuhloch" and one
with the GPS on the sandstone with scratches.
2) Enumerate the glacials for northern europe (respectively
northern Germany) and the alps (respectively southern Germany).
3) Name the era, period an epoch of these glacials in the
context geologic history.
You get the log-permission after you answered the
questions. So please first send a mail to velpker_schweiz@web.de and
then log. Every log without accreditation will be deleted
immediately!