Biber Danube interglacial

Classification

The Biber-Danube interglacial is defined as an erosion phase, that followed the Biber and preceded the Danube glacial. It is thus represented by the gap between the depositions that are ascribed to the two cold periods; in the type region of the two glacials, i.e. between the Stauden Plateau Gravels (Schottern der Staudenplatte) and the Lower Deckschotter (Untere Deckschottern) of the Zusam Plateau in the natural region known as the Iller-Lech Plateau. Biostratigraphically the interglacial has not been dated and is only definable geomorphologically from surface landforms. A type region has not been ascribed.

Its equivalent in the North German and Dutch warm periods is uncertain. If the gravels of the Zusam Plateau (Danube Glacial) are assumed to correspond to the Menapian of the Dutch glacial sequence and the gravels of the Stauden Plateau (Biber Glacial) to the Eburonian, then the Biber-Danube Interglacial corresponds to the Waalian Interglacial. That would correspond to MIS 29-35, and thus a period of about 1.1 to 1.4 million years ago. The correlation is however fraught with problems due to the view that the corresponding depositions in the Netherlands were probably not driven by climatic changes. Similar doubts on climatic grounds exist for the Biber and Danube glacials in the Alpine region since it is possible that they were caused more by tectonic influences in the wake of the uplift phases of the Alps.

The view that both the Biber and Danube glacials do not represent single cold periods, but probably several cold phases, and the fact that the erosion phase of the Biber-Danube Interglacial may not be particularly related to similar phases of the Old Pleistocene in the Alps, has led to doubts about the sense of the description "Biber-Danube Interglacial".

The Biber-Danube Interglacial corresponds at least in part to the Swiss Deckenschotter glaciations.

Literature