The Mindel glaciation (german: Mindel-Kaltzeit, also ''Mindel-Glazial'', ''Mindel-Komplex'' or, colloquially, ''Mindel-Eiszeit'') is the third youngest

glacial stage An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gree ...

in the

Alps The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Sw ...

. Its name was coined by

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, ...

and Eduard Brückner, who named it after the Swabian river, the

Mindel The Mindel () is a river in Bavaria, southern Germany. The Mindel originates west of Kaufbeuren, in the Allgäu region, and flows generally north. It flows into the Danube (right tributary) in Gundremmingen, east of Günzburg. The towns Mindelhei ...

. The Mindel glacial occurred in the

Middle Pleistocene The Chibanian, widely known by its previous designation of Middle Pleistocene, is an age in the international geologic timescale or a stage in chronostratigraphy, being a division of the Pleistocene Epoch within the ongoing Quaternary Period. The ...

; it was preceded by the

Haslach-Mindel interglacial The Haslach-Mindel interglacial (german: Haslach-Mindel-Interglazial) and the Haslach-Mindel warm period (''Haslach-Mindel-Warmzeit'') are historical terms for a hypothetical warm period of the Pleistocene in the Alpine region, between the Haslach ...

(often regarded as part of

Günz The Günz is a river in Bavaria, Germany. It is formed near Lauben by the confluence of its two source rivers: the Östliche Günz (eastern Günz) and the Westliche Günz (western Günz). It is approx. long (including its western source river) ...

) and succeeded by the Mindel-Riss interglacial ( Holstein interglacial). The Mindel glaciation is commonly correlated to the

Elster glaciation The Elster glaciation (german: Elster-Kaltzeit, ''Elster-Glazial'' or ''Elster-Zeit'') or, less commonly, the Elsterian glaciation, in the older and popular scientific literature also called the Elster Ice Age (''Elster-Eiszeit''), is the oldest k ...

of northern Europe. The more precise timing is controversial since Mindel is commonly correlated to two different

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 data reflecting changes in temperature derived from data ...

s, MIS 12Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy, Global chronostratigraphical correlation table for the last 2.7 million years, v. 2011
/ref> (478–424 thousand years ago) and MIS 10German Stratigraphic Commission: Stratigraphische Tabelle von Deutschland 2016
/ref> (374–337 thousand years ago). This ambiguity is much related to the correlation problem described in more detail in the article '

References

Literature

* * * (3 volumes) Pleistocene events Ice ages Geology of the Alps {{Glaciology-stub

See also

References

Literature