The North European Plain

North European Plain (NEP) spreads from the Belgium and Dutch coast through Germany and Denmark to the eastern parts of Poland. NEP can be divided into two belts: the Old Drift (or old-glacial landscape) and Young Drift (young-glacial landscape created in the last glaciation). NEP lies contemporary outside of the permafrost zone, however, it was a subject of significant periglacial remodelling in Quaternary cold stages. The Pleistocene permafrost zone developed in NEP each time the Scandinavian ice sheet advanced from the north. Phases of cold climate during the pre-Weischelian times are mainly recorded in thick sandy layers by significant admixture of rounded and matt quartz grains, testifying for wind abrasion under cold desert or semi-desert conditions. Weischelian periglaciation left a variety of structures and landforms, most importantly: ice wedge pseudomorphs, sand wedge casts, cryoturbations (involutions), ventifacts, solifluction deposits and dry (assymetric) valleys. One of the most spectacular features of NEP landscape is the ‘European sand belt’ composed of coversands and inland dunes. Pleistocene periglacial conditions are also imprinted in characteristic braided river patterns.