The Keuper Uplands ( or, more rarely ''Keuperwaldberge'') are part of the

South German Scarplands The South German Scarplands is a geological and geomorphological natural region or landscape in Switzerland and the south German states of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. The landscape is characterised by escarpments. Name It is variously referre ...

and cover an area of about 3,200

square kilometre The square kilometre (square kilometer in American spelling; symbol: km2) is a multiple of the square metre, the SI unit of area or surface area. In the SI unit of area (m2), 1 km2 is equal to 1M(m2). 1 km2 is equal to: * 1,000,000 squar ...

The following regions belong to the Keuper Uplands (from southwest to northeast): the

Kleiner Heuberg Kleiner () is a German or Jewish surname, meaning "smaller": * Alfred Kleiner, Swiss physicist * Marianne Kleiner, Swiss politician * Bruce Kleiner, American mathematician * Krista Arrieta Kleiner, Filipino-American TV actress/singer and host * ...

Rammert The Rammert is a forested hill range, up to , in the Keuper Uplands of central Baden-Württemberg, which belongs to the natural region major unit of Schönbuch and Glemswald in the Swabian Keuper-Lias Land. It continues the Schönbuch to the sout ...

Schönbuch Schönbuch (; ) is an almost completely wooded area southwest of Stuttgart and part of the Southern German Escarpment Landscape (German language, German: ''südwestdeutsches Schichtstufenland''). In 1972, the central zone of Schönbuch became the ...

, Glemswald, Stromberg and Heuchelberg,

Schurwald The Schurwald is a wooded mountain range in Baden-Württemberg, southern Germany, which at its highest point is 513.2 m above sea level. It is one of the most important Recreation areas for the Stuttgart area. Over the centuries, the vast forest ...

and

Welzheim Forest The Welzheim Forest () is a wooded, hill ridge, up to , in the counties of Rems-Murr-Kreis, Rems-Murr, Ostalbkreis, Ostalb and Landkreis Schwäbisch Hall, Schwäbisch Hall in Baden-Württemberg (Germany). Geography Location The Welzheim Fores ...

Swabian-Franconian Forest The Swabian-Franconian Forest (, also ''Schwäbisch-Fränkischer Wald'') is a mainly forested, deeply incised upland region, 1,187 km² in area and up to , in the northeast of Baden-Württemberg. It forms natural region major unit number 108 w ...

Franconian Heights The Franconian HeightsBavarian State Chancellery, ''Information about Bavaria'', 1981, p. 11. () are a hill ridge, up to , in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg in South Germany. Location and boundaries The Franconian Heights lie in the west of F ...

Steigerwald The Steigerwald () is a hill region up to in the Bavarian-Franconian part of the South German Scarplands between Würzburg and Nuremberg. It is part of the Keuper Uplands, and within it, it is continued to the north-northeast and right of the ...

and Hassberge. The southwesternmost Keuper

escarpment An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that forms as a result of faulting or erosion and separates two relatively level areas having different elevations. Due to the similarity, the term '' scarp'' may mistakenly be incorrectly used inte ...

in the area of the Baar does not have its own name because of its small size.

Natural region divisions

The Keuper Uplands are divided into three

natural region A natural region (landscape unit) is a basic geographic unit. Usually, it is a region which is distinguished by its common natural features of geography, geology, and climate. From the ecological point of view, the naturally occurring flora and ...

major unit groups which, in turn, are subdivided into major units, shown underneath in each case with three-figure index numbers (units of which only small areas lie on keuper are in italics) and ridges that are orographically separated from one another (basins and ridges on the perimeters have been omitted):Various authors: ''Geographische Landesaufnahme: Die naturräumlichen Einheiten in Einzelblättern 1:200,000.'' Bundesanstalt für Landeskunde, Bad Godesberg 1952–1994. �
Online maps
*Sheet 153: Bamberg (Karl Albert Habbe 2004, in ''Mitteilungen der Fränkischen Geographischen Gesellschaft 2003/2004'', pp. 55-102; 48 pp.) *Sheet 161: Karlsruhe (Josef Schmithüsen 1952; 24 pp.) *Sheet 162: Rotenburg o. d. Tauber (Wolf Dieter Sick 1962; 58 pp.) *Sheet 163: Nuremberg (Franz Tichy 1973; 33 pp.) *Sheet 170: Stuttgart (Friedrich Huttenlocher, Hansjörg Dongus 1967; 76 pp.) *Sheet 171: Göppingen (Hansjörg Dongus 1961; 54 pp.) *Sheet 172: Nördlingen (Ralph Jätzold 1962; 39 pp.) * ''(part of the

)'' ** ''(part of the 12 Neckar and Tauber Gäu Plateaux)'' *** 124 Stromberg and Heuchelberg ****124.1 Stromberg ****124.2

Heuchelberg The Heuchelberg () is a hill ridge, about 15 kilometres long and up to , a few kilometres southwest of the city of Heilbronn in the Landkreis Heilbronn, eponymous county in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. Location The Heuchelberg a ...

and Eppinger Hardt ** zu 10

Swabian Keuper-Lias Plains The Swabian Keuper-Lias Plains () is a major natural region in southwest Germany and includes the southwesternmost part of the Keuper Uplands, which is bordered immediately to the north by the Swabian Jura. Natural regions The Swabian Keuper lan ...

*** 104 Schönbuch and Glemswald **** 104.11

**** 104.12/15

(in its narrower sense) **** 104.20 Inner Glemswald *** 107 Schurwald and Welzheim Forest **** 107.0

**** 107.2

Berglen Berglen is a municipality in the district of Rems-Murr in Baden-Württemberg in Germany. Geography Geographical location The community Berglen is located about 25 kilometers east of Stuttgart in 300 to 450 meters altitude in the Keuper hill lan ...

**** 107.3

*** 108

****108.00

Murrhardt Forest The Murrhardt Forest () in the Baden-Württemberg county of Rems-Murr-Kreis is part of the natural region known as the Swabian-Franconian Forest. It reaches a maximum height of . at 1:10,000 scale. A lower value of m on many maps refer to a ...

****108.11 Sulm Plateaue ****108.13/14

Löwenstein Hills The Löwenstein Hills () are a hill range up to , in the counties of Landkreis Heilbronn, Heilbronn, Landkreis Ludwigsburg, Ludwigsburg, Rems-Murr-Kreis and Hohenlohekreis in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. They are named after the town of ...

(in their narrower sense) ****108.30 Kirnberg Forest ****108.31 Sulzbach Forest ****108.4

Mainhardt Forest The Mainhardt Forest is a hill range up to {{GeoQuelle, DE, BFN-Karten in the counties of Schwäbisch Hall and Heilbronn, Hohenlohekreis and Rems-Murr-Kreis in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is named after the municipality of Mainhard ...

****108.5 Waldenburg Hills ****108.60

Limpurg Hills The Limpurg Hills () are a hill range, up to , in the Swabian-Franconian Forest in the counties of Schwäbisch Hall and Ostalbkreis in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. The majority of the region belonged formerly to Limpurg Land owned by t ...

****108.70

Ellwangen Hills The Ellwangen Hills () are a hill ridge, up to , in the counties of Schwäbisch Hall and Ostalbkreis in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. The name of the range comes from the town of Ellwangen. The hills are known nationally especially ...

** (zu 11

Franconian Keuper-Lias Land The Franconian Keuper-Lias Plains or Franconian Keuper-Lias LandsDickinson, Robert E (1964). ''Germany: A regional and economic geography'' (2nd ed.). London: Methuen, p. 83. . () are a major natural region in the South German Scarplands in Upper ...

) *** 114

*** 115

*** 116 Haßberge *** ''(part of the 117 Itz-Baunach Hills)'' **** 117.40

Zeilberge The Zeilberg is a hill, ,
des

muschelkalk The Muschelkalk (German for "shell-bearing limestone"; ) is a sequence of sedimentary rock, sedimentary rock strata (a lithostratigraphy, lithostratigraphic unit) in the geology of central and western Europe. It has a Middle Triassic (240 to 230 m ...

dominated ''Gäue'', the landscapes in the above list along the

Albtrauf The term Albtrauf (Alp escarpment) refers to the northwest facing escarpment of the Swabian Alps, situated in Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria. It is the most distinctive stepped slope within the alpine region of the South German Scarplands, leadin ...

, from which they are separated by the lias dominated forelands, are oriented in a northeasterly direction.

Landscape

The landscape is characterised by the rock -

keuper The Keuper is a lithostratigraphic unit (a sequence of rock strata) in the subsurface of large parts of west and central Europe. The Keuper consists of dolomite, shales or claystones and evaporites that were deposited during the Middle and Lat ...

that gives it its name and is the uppermost and youngest

lithostratigraphic Lithostratigraphy is a sub-discipline of stratigraphy, the geological science associated with the study of strata or rock layers. Major focuses include geochronology, comparative geology, and petrology. In general, strata are primarily igneous ...

group A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together. Groups of people * Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity * Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic iden ...

of the

Germanic Trias The Germanic Trias Supergroup () is a lithostratigraphic unit (a sequence of rock strata) in the subsurface of large parts of western and central Europe (north of the Alps) and the North Sea. Almost all of the Germanic Trias was deposited during ...

. It exhibits a variety of depositions of sand beds and marine sediments. The Keuper Uplands are largely forested because the soils that form on the keuper are not very fertile.

Island clearing The clearing of woods and forests is the process by which vegetation, such as trees and bush (plant), bushes, together with their roots are permanently removed. The main aim of this process is to clear areas of forest, woodland or scrub in orde ...

s are found especially on the fertile

loess A loess (, ; from ) is a clastic rock, clastic, predominantly silt-sized sediment that is formed by the accumulation of wind-blown dust. Ten percent of Earth's land area is covered by loesses or similar deposition (geology), deposits. A loess ...

or lias soils. The very steep-sided

V-shaped valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains and typically containing a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams over a ve ...

s that are typical of the Keuper Uplands are known here as ''

klinge Klinge () is a village in the Lower Lusatia region, east of the city of Cottbus in Brandenburg. It is a part (''Gemeindeteil'') of the municipality of Wiesengrund Wiesengrund (Lower Sorbian language, Lower Sorbian Łukojce) is a Municipalities ...

n''. Such ''klingen'' occur in the petrographically harder

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

beds of the keuper, for example in the Stubensandstein. These rocks are able to resist significantly the

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as Surface runoff, water flow or wind) that removes soil, Rock (geology), rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust#Crust, Earth's crust and then sediment transport, tran ...

forces (especially side erosion) of water. In less erosion-resistant rocks of the keuper like the

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...

s or

marl Marl is an earthy material rich in carbonate minerals, Clay minerals, clays, and silt. When Lithification, hardened into rock, this becomes marlstone. It is formed in marine or freshwater environments, often through the activities of algae. M ...

s, the valleys are more deeply carved out so that many wider-profiled valley are formed.

References

External links

Tobias Spaltenberger, ''Geoökologie des Keuperberglands''
(pdf file; 2.13 MB)

- Geologie und Weinbergsböden Württembergs, Teil 3. Ministerium für Ernährung und Ländlichen Raum Baden-Württemberg (MLR) {{coord missing, Germany Natural regions of the South German Scarplands Swabia