Die Küste, 74 ICCE (2008), 1-17 
5 
• Göteborg 
Schweden 
Dänemark 
Dogger Bjr* 
»um»!» . ~ ,a _4 
K pei he fm 
Saale Icesheet 
England 
iMMI 
Amtier dim 
e 
Bremen 
HmM. Bad*, 
y' 
Holland 
Deutschland 
Aài 
Gent 
1 
• Goteborg 
Schweden 
Danemark 
Dogger Bank 
# A V ( 
Kopenhagen 
WeiseNan 
Icesheet 
Weichselian Icesheet 
^ m s'&mi 
England 
Anttierdem 
Holland 
[ StefWi 
Deutschland 
Gent 
Fig. 3: Maximum extent of the inland ice sheets during Saale- and Weichselian glaciations in middle- 
Europe. The lower courses of the rivers Ems, Weser and Elbe were forming a common spillway into the 
North Atlantic via the North Sea (Berner and Streif, 2000; modified) 
the Elsterian and the Saalian glaciations, respectively, typical marine-brackish coastal sedi 
ments were deposited. With the exception of some deep embayments into the mainland, the 
spatial distribution of these sediments almost describes the recent Southern North Sea coast 
line (Streif, 1990). 
The ice cover of the subsequent youngest cold stage, the Weichselian glaciation (117,000- 
10,200 BP), did not reach the German Bight (Berner and Streif, 2000, Fig. 3). During the 
last glacial maximum (LGM), when the Weichselian ice cover had a thickness of approxima 
tely 3,000 m and its maximum extent, the global sea level was approximately 120 m lower 
than the present sea level (see Fig. 4). The entire North Sea area was exposed, the coastline 
was shifted approximately 600 km to the West (Streif, 2002), and periglacial processes left 
their traces in the deposits. In the hinterland, huge amounts of meltwater eroded a wide 
valley along the southern glacial front (Schwarz, 1999) which today is the stream bed of the 
River Elbe. Together with the rivers Ems, Weser and Eider it formed a glacial spillway which 
emptied into the North Sea basin (Fig. 3) forming the wide Helgoland glacial valley (Figge,