Glacial series

On the far side of the morainic zone is the gravel outwash plain, which was piled up by the meltwaters of the ice mass.

Those waters usually came from glacier caves whose former location is still recognisable today from the dips in the level of the terminal moraines.

By contrast, elements with smaller grain size, like clays and sands can be transported much further, which is why they are rarely found in the gravel plains.

The landforms of the glacial series here thus follow one another from north to south: The ground moraine landscape consists predominantly in flat to gently rolling terrain, on which the ice mass deposited till.

Zungenbecken, where the scouring of material played a significant role, occur to a lesser extent and are an element of the ground moraine landscape in the Scandinavian glaciation region.

These terminal moraines are often incompletely formed and lower than in the Alpine Foreland, but are nevertheless clearly visible in the low-relief of the North German Plain.

Because of their many gaps, the neutral term, Eisrandlage ("ice margin location") has been preferred for the line of terminal moraine ridges in North Germany.

In particular, it is often forgotten that the landforms of the glacial series were formed almost at the same time alongside one another, whilst the ice margin remained static by the terminal moraine.

For example, lines of terminal moraines lying close behind one another in the Brandenburg region of Germany drained over the same sandurs and via the same meltwater valley.