Denmark / by Elwyn Davies [and others].

  • Great Britain. Naval Intelligence Division.
Date:
1944
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Denmark / by Elwyn Davies [and others]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    45/726 (page 21)
    The Danish Archipelago In the islands of the Danish archipelago the ice sheets left low morainic plains between, and on each side of, the terminal moraines and hill country of the Belt Advance and the Langeland Advance. Along the zone where the ice margin lay during the Belt Advance lie lines of hills and ridges of rounded countours and: composed of morainic gravel. These are backed by hill country which is specially prominent behind Faaborg and in north-east Fyn, especially behind Nyborg, and continue around the southern lobe of the fjord behind Kerteminde. In western Fyn these morainic hills are generally 30-40 m. high, but southward and eastward they rise to between 75 and 100m. to form the Fynske Alper with hill summits rising above 100m. Occasionally tiny ‘kettle-hole’ lakes are to be found among the hills. On the outer border of the ice margin in north-east Fyn an outwash plain was formed extending from the south coast of Odense Fjord south-eastward to Langeskov, and bordered on its eastern flank between Birkinde and Rynkeby by lines of eskers where the streams which formed the sandy plain flowed (see Fig. 7). Elsewhere in northern Fyn the ice sheet deposited its load of detritus fairly evenly and smoothly to form a morainic flat, or plain, with a gently undulating surface. The relief here consists of low undulating country, about 50 m. high inland and sloping gently to about 20 m. behind the coast. Surface features are few and consist chiefly of rounded, oval or elongated mounds and flat-topped ridges rising perhaps to 10-15 m. above the general level but usually lower. The valleys are small and open and have only very occasional stretches of marsh. Villages and groups of farms are more characteristic here than scattered, habitations. In Hindsholm and Samsé the relief consists of transverse hills composed of sand and gravel and running in the same direction as the ice margin. These hills rise, to between about 25 and 35 m., out of the surrounding morainic clay which forms usually low and gently undulating landscape. Across Langeland and southern and eastern Sjelland, the Langeland Advance of the ice sheets left yet another belt of terminal moraines and hill country. In Langeland the long, low, rounded hills, rising mostly to between 20 and 30 m., extend along the length of the island. In Sjezlland, the moraines and hills extend in a curved zone from Korsér south-eastward behind Skelskér and then swing round past Neestved and behind the east coast to Helsingér and form a landscape