North German plain

North German plain

The North German Plain is one of the major landscapes in Germany. The region is delimited by the coasts of the North Sea and Baltic Sea on the north and the central German uplands to the south.

According to the German Federal Nature Conservation Agency, The North German lowlands consist of the following sections:: * D01 Coastal region of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern: * D02 North-eastern Mecklenburg plain with Szczecin Lagoon area: * D03 Backcounty of the Mecklenburg Lake District: * D04 Mecklenburg Lake District: * D05 Mecklenburg-Brandenburg flat land and hill country: * D06 East Brandenburg plain: * D07 Oder valley: * D08 Lusatian sedimentary basin and Spreewald: * D09 Elbe valley: * D10 Elbe-Mulde lowland: * D11 Fläming: * D12 Brandenburg heath and lakes area: * D13 Upper Lusatian Heath: * D14 Upper Lusatia: * D21 Schleswig-Holstein marshes: * D22 Schleswig-Holstein geests : * D23 Schleswig-Holstein hill country: * D24 Lower Elbe depression (Elbmarsch): * D25 Ems and Weser marshes: * D26 East Frisian geest: * D27 Stade geest: * D28 Lüneburg Heath: * D29 Wendland and Altmark: * D30 Dümmer geest depression and Ems-Hunte geest: * D31 Weser-Aller-plain: * D34 Münsterland (Westphalian) lowland bay: * D35 lowlands from the Lower Rhine and Cologne bay

In the west the Lower Saxonian mountainous range, Teutoburg Forest, Wiehengebirge, Wesergebirge and the Börde-areas of Lower Saxony limit the North German plain to the south and partly cutting off the Westphalian lowland bay. Furthermore Rhenish Schiefergebirge with its subranges Eifel, Bergisches Land and Sauerland act as a southern boundary. In the east the lowlands stretch eastward of the Harz and Kyffhäuser further south up to the Saxon hill country and Ore Mountains.

Landscape, soils and their formation

The North German plain was formed during the pleistocene era in different glaciation periods from Skandinavian ice sheets as well as by periglacial geomorphologic processes. [cite web
url=http://www.v-g-t.de/english/brd/module/m1/u2.htm
title=Unit 2: The natural landscape of Germany
publisher=Virtual Geographic Texts
date=
author=
language=English
accessdate=2008-06-26
] Depending on whether the area was still reached from the ice of the last ice age, Vistula ice age one speaks from Young- or from Altmoränen country. Surface relief is level to wavy. The deepest points lie in low moors and old marshy land on the edge from geest back in the west of Schleswig - Holstein (Wilstermarsch: 3.5 meters under the sea level) or in the northwest of Lower Saxony (with Freepsum; to 2.3 meters under the sea level). As the highest points the "summits" are to be called by Vistula-glacial and hall-glacial terminal moraines – among the rest, in the Fläming with 200 ms NN and in the Helpter mountains with 179 ms NN. Formerly vast ombrogene high-level moors originated in western and northern Lower Saxony postglazial in warm times rich in precipitation (compares: Atlantikum).

The areas close to coasts exist of holozänen lake marshes and river marshes or Boddenlandschaft which joins pleistozäne Alt-sowie Jungmoränenlandschaft in different stamping and decomposition stages. After or with retreat of the glaciers the wind-borne sand dunes which were fixed later by the vegetation often formed. Human interventions let emerge open heath areas like in the Lüneburg Heath and by measures like deforestation and so-called "Plaggenhieb" (removal of the upper soil level) caused a wide impoverishment of the soil (Podsol) . The most fertile grounds are the young marshes (Auen-Vegen) and the Börde areas (Hildesheim Börde, Magdeburg Börde, with their loessic and fertile soils). The poorest grounds show the high-level moor-peat, for instance in the Devil's Moor. The lowest areas of the lowland belong to the oldest settlement locations of Germany (Linear Pottery culture).

The region is drained by rivers that flow northward into the North Sea or the Baltic Sea. The Rhine, Ems, the Weser, the Elbe and Havel are the most important rivers which drain the North German lowlands in the North Sea and provided in her depressions for the origin of meadow and break woods as examples to the Spree wood. [cite web
url=http://library.thinkquest.org/J0112187/germany_geography.htm
title=Germany's Geography
publisher=Thinkquest.org
date=
author=
language=English
accessdate=2008-06-27
] Only a small surface interest belongs to the catchment area from Or and Neiße and drains into the Baltic Sea.

Climate and Vegetation

The coastal areas of the and the East and North Frisian Islands [are characterised by euoceanic climate. South of the coast, a broad area of oceanic and suboceanionic climate ranges from the east coast of Schleswig-Holstein to the western edges of the central German highlands. To the southeast and east, the climate becomes increasingly subcontinental; among others, the temperature differences between summer and winter are increasing successively. Locally, dryer continental climate can be found in the rain shadow of the Harz and some smaller uplands like the Drawehn and the Fläming. Special microclimates occur in bogs and heathlands and, for example, in the Altes Land near Hamburg, which is characterised by relatively mild temperatures year round due to the vicinity of the North Sea and lower Elbe river, providing excellent conditions for fruit production.

Azonal vegetation complexes of moors, riparian forests, fens and water bodies originally stretched along the rivers Ems, Weser, Elbe, Havel and Spree. Distinctive salt meadows, tideflats and tidal reed beds in the estuaries existed permanently in the tidal zone of the North Sea coast. The zonal vegetation of the North German lowlands would be after the ruling doctrine to a great extent formed by the climax vegetation of the European Beech forest (Fagetalia).

Military Importance

The North German plain, due to its strategic geography suitable for armored and mechanized maneuver, was logically assumed by NATO planners to be one of the two major invasion routes into Western Europe that Warsaw Pact forces, led by the dread Soviet Third Shock Army, would use if the Cold War ever got "hot". (The other route was through the Fulda Gap.)

ee also

*Northern European Plain

Notes

References

* Ellenberg, Heinz. "Vegetation Mitteleuropas mit den Alpen in ökologischer, dynamischer und historischer Sicht: 170 Tabellen". Stuttgart: Ulmer, 1996. ISBN 3825281043.

External links

* [http://www.germany.co.za/germany_lowlands.html The North German Lowland]
* [http://www.britannica.com/eb/topic-419243/North-German-Plain "North German Plain"] , Britannica Online Encyclopedia
* [http://www.destatis.de/jetspeed/portal/cms/Sites/destatis/Internet/EN/Content/Statistics/Geography/Aktuell,templateId=renderPrint.psml Federal (German) Statistical Office - Geography and climate]
* [http://library.thinkquest.org/J0112187/germany_geography.htm Germany's Geography]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • North German Plain — ▪ plain, Germany       lowland region of northern Germany extending from the North and Baltic seas southward to the foreland of the Central German Uplands. It is a portion of the Great European Plain that spreads from the Belgium coast east into… …   Universalium

  • North German Plain — Physical map of Germany. The North German Plain largely corresponds to the dark green surfaces north of the tan coloured low mountain ranges …   Wikipedia

  • North European Plain — The North European Plain The North European Plain (German: Norddeutsches Tiefland, Polish: Nizina Środkowoeuropejska, i.e. Central European Plain) is a geomorphological region in Europe. It consists of the lo …   Wikipedia

  • North Rhine-Westphalia — NRW redirects here. For other uses, see NRW (disambiguation). North Rhine Westphalia Nordrhein Westfalen   State of Germany   …   Wikipedia

  • German–Polish Non-Aggression Pact — The German Polish Non Aggression Pact ( de. Deutsch polnischer Nichtangriffspakt; pl. Polsko niemiecki pakt o nieagresji [ K.Lapter, Pakt Piłsudski Hitler. Polsko niemiecka deklaracja o niestosowaniu przemocy z 26 stycznia 1934 r., Warszawa 1962 …   Wikipedia

  • German language — German Deutsch Pronunciation [ˈdɔʏtʃ] Spoken in Primarily in German speaking Europe, as a minority language and amongst the German diaspora worldwide …   Wikipedia

  • North America — North American. the northern continent of the Western Hemisphere, extending from Central America to the Arctic Ocean. Highest point, Mt. McKinley, 20,300 ft. (6187 m); lowest, Death Valley, 276 ft. (84 m) below sea level. 400,000,000 including… …   Universalium

  • North Carolina — North Carolinian. a state in the SE United States, on the Atlantic coast. 5,874,429; 52,586 sq. mi. (136,198 sq. km). Cap.: Raleigh. Abbr.: NC (for use with zip code), N.C. * * * State (pop., 2000: 8,049,313), southern Atlantic region, U.S. Lying …   Universalium

  • Low German house — Dat groode Hus, a 1795 Low German house at the Winsen Museum Farm …   Wikipedia

  • NORTH CAROLINA — NORTH CAROLINA, state in S.E. U.S. Its population in 2000 was 8,049,313, of which the Jewish population was estimated at 26,500. Jews appeared in early colonial times, but a community did not develop until the late antebellum era, a trend that… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”