Riss glaciation

The type locality lies near Biberach an der Riß where the end of the northeastern Rhine Glacier stood.

Results gained from over a century of research show that in almost all glacial periods, several ice advances took place.

[4] Excluded from the Riss glaciation is the so-called Old Riss (Ältere Riß),[5] the time of the greatest ice advance in the Alpine region: today it is referred to as the Haslach-Mindel complex (in Bavaria and Austria), Hoßkirch complex (in Baden-Württemberg) or Great Glaciation in Switzerland.

The first two advances have not been confirmed with certainty because they are overlaid by the two stadials at the end of the Riss glaciation that extended well to the north.

In the west the Rhône Glacier covered large parts of the Swiss Plateau and reached as far north as the northern Folded Jura and as far south as Lyon.

In Bavaria, the Riss moraines form a little subdivided countryside without bogs and lakes, where they are not covered by the younger deposits of the Würm glaciation.

[5] During the Riss, the Salzach[8] and Dachstein glaciers were somewhat smaller than during the Günz and Mindel glaciations,[9] the latter extending in each case to the Hausruck and Kobernauß Forest ridge (subalpine molasse).