Danube or Donau is a timespan in the glacial history of the

Alps The Alps () are some of the highest and most extensive mountain ranges in Europe, stretching approximately across eight Alpine countries (from west to east): Monaco, France, Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria and Slovenia. ...

. Danube is currently regarded to have started approximately 1.8 million years ago, at the start of the Calabrian age of the international

geochronology Geochronology is the science of Chronological dating, determining the age of rock (geology), rocks, fossils, and sediments using signatures inherent in the rocks themselves. Absolute geochronology can be accomplished through radioactive isotopes, ...

. It ended approximately one million years ago. Deep sea core samples have identified approximately 20 glacial cycles during Danube.German Stratigraphic Commission: Stratigraphische Tabelle von Deutschland 2016
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History of the term

The Danube glaciation, Donau glaciation () or the Danube Glacial (''Donau-Glazial'') was named by Barthel Eberl in 1930 after the

River Danube The Danube ( ; see also other names) is the second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest south into the Black Sea. A large and historically important riv ...

. It did not appear in the traditional, quadripartite ice age schema of the

Albrecht Penck Albrecht Penck (25 September 1858 – 7 March 1945) was a German geographer and geologist and the father of Walther Penck. Biography Born in Reudnitz near Leipzig, Penck became a university professor in Vienna, Austria, from 1885 to 1906, ...

. The Danube was the oldest glaciation in the Alps for which there was evidence outside of the

Iller The Iller (; ancient name Ilargus) is a river of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg in Germany. It is a right tributary of the Danube, long. It is formed at the confluence of the rivers Breitach, Stillach and Trettach near Oberstdorf in the Al ...

- Lech region. Danube Stage was thought to be preceded by the Biber-Danube interglacial and followed by the Danube-Günz interglacial. 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. The age of the transition to the following Gunz stage remains uncertain. Danube corresponds to Eburonian, Waalian,

Menapian The Menapii were a Belgic tribe dwelling near the North Sea, around present-day Cassel, during the Iron Age and the Roman period. History The Menapii were persistent opponents of Julius Caesar's conquest of Gaul, resisting until 54 BC. They ...

, and perhaps Bavelian in the glacial history of Northern Europe.

Glacial cycles

Deep sea core samples have identified approximately 40

marine isotope stage Marine isotope stages (MIS), marine oxygen-isotope stages, or oxygen isotope stages (OIS), are alternating warm and cool periods in the Earth's paleoclimate, deduced from Oxygen isotope ratio cycle, oxygen isotope data derived from deep sea core ...

s (starting with MIS 63 and going no further than MIS 20). Thus, there have probably been about 20 glacial cycles of varying intensity during Danube. The dominant trigger is believed to be the 41 000 year

Milankovitch cycles Milankovitch cycles describe the collective effects of changes in the Earth's movements on its climate over thousands of years. The term was coined and named after the Serbian geophysicist and astronomer Milutin Milanković. In the 1920s, he pr ...

of axial tilt, but the

Mid-Pleistocene Transition The Mid-Pleistocene Transition (MPT), also known as the Mid-Pleistocene Revolution (MPR), is a fundamental change in the behaviour of glacial cycles during the Quaternary glaciations. The transition lasted around 550,000 years, from 1.25 million ...

to 100,000 year cycles starts towards the end of Danube.Encyclopedia of Quaternary Science
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References

{{Alpine glaciations Pleistocene Ice ages Geology of the Alps

History of the term

Glacial cycles

See also

References