The Keuper Uplands (german: Keuperbergland or, more rarely ''Keuperwaldberge'') are part of the South German Scarplands and cover an area of about 3,200

square kilometre Square kilometre ( International spelling as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures) or square kilometer (American spelling), symbol km2, is a multiple of the square metre, the SI unit of area or surface area. 1 km2 is eq ...

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

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

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 sou ...

Schönbuch Schönbuch is an almost completely wooded area south west of Stuttgart and part of the Southern German Escarpment Landscape (German: ''südwestdeutsches Schichtstufenland''). In 1972 the centre zone of Schönbuch became the first nature park in ...

, 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 forests ...

and

Welzheim Forest The Welzheim Forest (german: Welzheimer Wald) is a wooded, hill ridge, up to , in the counties of Rems-Murr, Ostalb and Schwäbisch Hall in Baden-Württemberg (Germany). Geography Location The Welzheim Forest lies just under 38 kilomet ...

Swabian-Franconian Forest The Swabian-Franconian Forest (german: Schwäbisch-Fränkischen Waldberge, 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 fo ...

Franconian Heights The Franconian HeightsBavarian State Chancellery, ''Information about Bavaria'', 1981, p. 11. (german: Frankenhöhe) are a hill ridge, up to , in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg in South Germany. Location and boundaries The Franconian Heights l ...

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 river ...

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. The terms ''scarp'' and ''scarp face'' are often used interchangeably with ''escar ...

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 ecology, ecological point of view, the naturally occurring fl ...

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 South German Scarplands)'' ** ''(part of the 12 Neckar and Tauber Gäu Plateaux)'' *** 124 Stromberg and Heuchelberg ****124.1 Stromberg ****124.2 Heuchelberg and Eppinger Hardt ** zu 10

Swabian Keuper-Lias Plains The Swabian Keuper-Lias Plains (german: Schwäbisches Keuper-Lias-Land) 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. N ...

*** 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 **** 107.3

*** 108

****108.00

Murrhardt Forest The Murrhardt Forest (german: Murrhardter Wald) 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 ...

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

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

(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 Mainhardt ...

****108.5

Waldenburg Hills The Waldenburg Hills (german: Waldenburger Berge) are a forested hill range, up to , in the counties of Schwäbisch Hall and Hohenlohe in the south German state of Baden-Württemberg. At the same time the Waldenburg Hills are one of five woodland ...

****108.60

Limpurg Hills The Limpurg Hills (german: Limpurger Berge) 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 ...

****108.70

Ellwangen Hills The Ellwangen Hills (german: Ellwanger Berge) 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 ...

** (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. . (german: Fränkische Keuper-Lias-Land) are a major natural region in t ...

) *** 114

*** 115

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

Zeilberge The Zeilberg is a hill, ,
des

Apart from the ''Stromber and Heuchelberg'', which lie north of ''Schönbuch and Glemswald'' and outside the Keuper-Lias landscapes in the

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

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, leadi ...

, from which they are separated by the

lias Lias may refer to: Geology * Lias Formation, a geologic formation in France *Lias Group, a lithostratigraphic unit in western Europe * Early Jurassic, an epoch People * Godfrey Lias, British author * Mohd Shamsudin Lias (born 1953), Malaysian ...

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 Late ...

that gives it its name and is the uppermost and youngest

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

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 ide ...

of the

Germanic Trias The Germanic Trias Supergroup (german: Germanische Trias-Supergruppe) 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 G ...

. 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 clearings are found especially on the fertile

loess Loess (, ; from german: Löss ) is a 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 loess or similar deposits. Loess is a periglacial or aeolian ...

or lias soils. The very steep-sided

V-shaped valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between Hill, hills or Mountain, mountains, which will typically contain a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers ...

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

klinge Klinge (''Lower Sorbian: Klinka'') is a village in the Lower Lusatia region, east of the city of Cottbus in Brandenburg. It is part of the municipality of Wiesengrund. Transport The Bahnhof Klinge is served once an hour in each direction by th ...

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

petrographically Petrography is a branch of petrology that focuses on detailed descriptions of rocks. Someone who studies petrography is called a petrographer. The mineral content and the textural relationships within the rock are described in detail. The class ...

harder

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

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 water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is distin ...

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. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

s or

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

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