Steinwies boulder
The Steinwies boulder is a boulder near Steinwies , a district of the Bad Feilnbach municipality in the Upper Bavarian district of Rosenheim in Bavaria .
location
The boulder is located south of the state road St 2010 near Steinwies.
description
Large, unfamiliar boulders in and on moraines are called erratic boulders or erratic blocks . The large block of light, fine-grained, non- porphyry ortho-gneiss (or central gneiss) is angular to rounded edges and split on the west side. It is about 8 meters long, 5 meters wide and up to 3 meters high. A field cross is on the boulder. In front of it is the small Steinwies chapel, which has been designated a historical building by the Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Monuments .
During the last glacial period , this boulder reached the Inn-Chiemsee glacier from the Austrian Central Alps as far as Au near Bad Aibling . After the glacier melted, the gneiss block remained here. It testifies to the great transport distances of the ice and its glacier stands, which reached far into the Alpine foothills . Accordingly, the Inn-Chiemsee-Glacier carried the boulder over a distance of almost 100 kilometers before it remained where it is today.
The Quaternary Ages in the past 2.6 million years were characterized by strong climatic fluctuations. At least six glaciers are known from the Alpine region that lasted for tens of thousands of years. Here the glaciers in the mountains grew strongly and contiguous glacier areas were formed. Only a few mountain ranges protruded. The ice edges moved further and further into the foreland. The most recent ice age ( Würm Ice Age) reached its greatest extent of ice about 20,000 years ago. After that, temperatures rose again and the glaciers gradually melted. The Alpine foothills have been completely free of ice for around 15,000 years. The deposits ( moraines ) left behind by the former glacier are evidence of the ice stands at the time.
The alpine glaciers do not consist exclusively of ice, but also of rock rubble. This comes from the valley floor, the valley flanks and from rockfalls and avalanches. The ice masses transport the rock and deposit it as a moraine on the bottom, on the sides and on the glacier front, sometimes far from the place of origin. Boulders, like the moraines, indicate which areas were formerly covered by glaciers. However, not every boulder is visible on the surface of the earth.
Only a few of the boulders that were transported into the Alpine foothills lie directly on the surface. Repeated advances and melting of the glaciers as well as meltwater flows in front of the glaciers are the reason that most of the erratic boulders are covered with rubble and debris. They are only discovered by chance during gravel mining or drilling.
This boulder is located in the area of the former Inn-Chiemsee glacier. It consists of gneiss and is one of the largest in Bavaria at around 60 m³. The rock is not found in the immediate vicinity; larger such deposits can only be found in the Austrian Central Alps. The local gneiss of the Tauern Window was created during the alpine mountain formation under high pressure and temperature conditions deep below the earth's surface through rock transformation. As a result of uplift and erosion , they then came back to the surface. Today they form an essential part of the Hohe Tauern and the Zillertal Alps .
Geotope
The boulder in Steinwies is designated by the Bavarian State Office for the Environment (LfU) as a geoscientific geotope (geotope number: 187R020). It was also awarded the official seal of approval for Bavaria's most beautiful geotopes by the LfU .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Location of the geotope in the Bavaria Atlas (accessed on November 26, 2017).
- ↑ Bavarian State Office for the Environment, Geotop Findling Steinwies SW von Oberlengendorf (accessed on November 26, 2017).
- ↑ Bavaria's most beautiful geotopes, foundling from Steinwies (accessed on November 26, 2017)
Web links
Coordinates: 47 ° 48 ′ 34.7 ″ N , 11 ° 56 ′ 9 ″ E