Dutch Landscapes Summary PDF

**CH. 4 Dutch landscapes** **Dutch landscapes** All main rivers in northern Europe end in the Netherlands depositing its sediments. **Geological timescales** The earths time is described by a geological timescale 10 Interesting Facts About the Geological Time Scale **Pleistocene** In this tim...

**CH. 4 Dutch landscapes** **Dutch landscapes** All main rivers in northern Europe end in the Netherlands depositing its sediments. **Geological timescales** The earths time is described by a geological timescale 10 Interesting Facts About the Geological Time Scale **Pleistocene** In this time there were many glacial periods alternating with inter-glacial periods the landscape of the Nethe rlands shaped more into the landscape we recognise now **Most important ice ages** - Saalien glacial period 238.000 -- 126.000 years ago - Weichselien glacial period 116.000 -- 11.700 years ago **Ice age** In the second last ice age during the Saalien ice was spreading from Scandinavia covering half of Europe in ice. The water in the north sea was frozen in massive glaciers. In a way it was a dessert like landscape with hardly any precipitation. In the last ice age during the Weichselien the ice didn't reach the Netherlands, yet it was still very cold and felt like a tundra. Wind could pick up small particles called loess and was deposited in Limburg **Interglacial period** The warm period between two ice ages. The start of the Holocene meant the end of the Weichselien glaciation, the last ice age. **Saale ice age** In the Saale ice age. Large glaciers came from the North and covered half of our country. The ice reached the so-called HUN-line. This abbreviation refers to the cities - Haarlem -- Utrecht -- Nijmegen Layers of soil are pushed in front of the glacier, creating hills containing sand, clay, gravel, stones and boulders. We call these hills push moraines. **Soil types** We have four main soil types in the Netherlands - Sand - Clay - Peat - Loess The top layer is about 2 meters thick, under that you can find older layer of sediments of earlier times. **Holocene** In the glacial period after the ice age (about 12,000 years ago) the sea level started to rise slowly this process caused marine clay to deposition at the coastal areas. During the Holocene large wetlands started to form. Plants that died fell into the water, because they couldn't decay due to the lack of oxygen layers of peat were formed (in the Holocene we also see the first humans making their appearance) **Developing into the Netherlands** In the last 2 centuries you see that man has found more and more ways to deal with the water, creating our coastlines and creating new land to live and farm on. **Humans influencing the landscape** To make the land more useable humans began to cultivate the land for agriculture. To create more land humans designed polders (reclaimed land from the water) and divide the land into parcels. **The sand landscape** What is sand? Sand comes in in different sizes and has different names due to the size it has, but actually it is all tiny bits of rock and stone From large to small - Gravel - Sand - Silt **Where is the sand?** In the last Ice Age (the Weichselien) you see that the landscape looked like a desert. Cold, yet very dry and hardly and precipitation. Sand was blown to the Netherlands from what now is the North Sea **Advantages & disadvantages** Advantage of the sand ground areas was that they were higher ground, so safe places to live, in addition sand is a solid soil to build up Disadvantage is that agriculture on a sandy soil was not easy. Sandy soils are often too dry, because the rainwater seeps easily around the sand particles and goes deeper underground. In addition, sand cannot hold nutrients, so sand soils lack the proper elements to grow crops and are not good for agriculture **Changes in the landscape** Artificial fertilizer replaced manure Farm production in the sand landscape changed livestock farming often became the main purpose, while other farmers specialised in growing crops. The fields of crop farmers were made much larger, so that big machinery could be used In livestock farming, animals in general were seen as \'machines' which produce as much milk, eggs or meat as possible. This is called factory farming, which is found mostly on agriculturally less useful sand soils. **The dune landscape** The first dunes started to form around 5000 years ago. These old dunes are a bit further inland up to a few kilometres from the coasts. The young dunes started to form approximately one thousand years ago. The waves deposit sand on the beach when the sand dries the wind can pick It up and move it. Small obstacles like vegetation (plants and trees) or even shells can cause the sand to become stuck, it forms a tiny hill of sand that eventually can become a dune **Dune landscape in danger** Due to human activity the dune landscape is in danger. More land is being used for building houses, industry etc. and less space is left for the natural process of creating dunes. Dunes play a vital role in the defence of our country against the sea. For those reasons the dunes are now protected and forbidden to go in to many areas. **What is river clay?** Clay is unlike sand made of minerals that are formed by a chemical process. Clay is very small and can stick together like rooftiles. Therefore they can hold a lot of water between them including nutrients that make the soil fertile. **River clay in the Netherlands** The rivers transported more water than they do today. The deposited clay along these currents, especially with floodings (formation of komgronden) **Building dykes** These early rivers dykes were not as well-built as they are today. They breached now and again, the water formed round lakes and a new dyke often was built in a bend around it. A round lake like this is called a Wiel **Peat landscape** Peat is a layer of partly decayed organic material. It does not rot fully because there is almost no oxygen. As such, peat needs water to survive to keep the oxygen away. Oxygen would cause the plants to rot away. Peat forms from dead plants - Without oxygen the dead plants stay intact - When this happens for a long time, you get a layer of dead plants this type of peat is called Fen There is another type of peat - This type consists of dead layers of sphagnum moss this type of moss lives on rain alone - The layer of moss is like a big sponge that holds water - Over time a new layer of moss grows on the old one. This is called Bog The peat landscape did not always look the way it does now, people dug out the peat from the ground ( 1500 -- 1960). After drying it out it became a form of fuel. 'turfsteken' is the reason why there is only a small amount of peat landscape left.