Deep sea core samples have identified approximately 20 glacial cycles during Danube.
[2] It did not appear in the traditional, quadripartite ice age schema of the Alps by Albrecht Penck.
The Danube was the oldest glaciation in the Alps for which there was evidence outside of the Iller-Lech region.
The 2016 version of the detailed stratigraphic table by the German Stratigraphic Commission firmly places Danube (Donau) in the Calabrian and illustrates a continuity of glacial cycles with the preceding Biber stage.
Danube corresponds to Eburonian, Waalian, Menapian, and perhaps Bavelian in the glacial history of Northern Europe.