Climate and landscape in the Pleistocene

• Aardrijkskunde
• Middelbare school
• havo
• Leerjaar 2

Climate and landscape in the Pleistocene

Lesson goals:

1. Define Pleistocene and Holocene period (using the atlas)

2. Discuss dolmens

3. Review the two main ice ages (Saale en Weichsel)

Hunnebedden / Dolmens

 In Drenthe there are no mountains or rocks. But hunebedden are made of huge stones. Where did they come from..? The answer is: from Scandinavia. About 200,000 years ago, during an ice-period, most of northern Europe including our country was covered by a thick layer of ice. The big boulders of which the hunebedden are made of have been transported to The Netherlands by slow moving ice-glaciers. Even today, digging in Drenthe's soil, smaller and bigger stones emerge. 

What were 'hunnebedden' (dolmens) used for?

1. Shelter
2. Places to gather
3. Graves
4. Storage of food

What is another name for an ice age?

1. Pleistocene
2. glacial period
3. Holocene
4. interglacial

Saale Glacial 

Saale Glacial

• Ice covered large part of the Netherlands (HUN - line = Haarlem - Utrecht Nijmegen) DRAWING
  
• The rest of the Netherlands was a polar desert (very cold)
• Moraines formed because ice pushed material forward (glacial sediments) forming the Utrechtse Heuvelrug. 

The ice reached no further than the HUN - line

Stuwwallen = terminal moraine

Keileem = boulder clay

Weichsel Glacial

Weichsel glacial

• Ice covered Scandinavia
• Most of the Netherlands was a polar desert
• South Limburg had some vegetation on its hills
• Wind-borne sand (dekzand) form the former North Sea covered the Netherlands.
• Loess (löss) covered South Limburg 
• (DRAWING)

How could the wind-borne sand come from the former North Sea?

1. The water would wash the sand onshore
2. The sea water was stored in the ice caps
3. There was enough space
4. The wind blew very hard

Why was the lighter loess trapped in South Limburg? This is because

1. rivers carried it towards South Limburg.
2. there was enough sand left.
3. hills and vegetation trapped the loess.
4. the winds in this area were not very strong.

Do the exercise 

Draw the climate graphs using your red and blue pencils.