Current clay potential in Germany | Part 9: Raw materials from the Quaternary system
The Quaternary ice age is subdivided by cyclic climatic fluctuations reflected in long glacial periods and shorter interglacial periods. The climate has significantly controlled sedimentation, the sediments occurring in a genetically determined sequence. For North German brick producers, glacilimnic basin clays present an important basic raw material. Southern German brickworks process periglacial loess clays to a notable extent.
1 The Earth System
The Earth is a highly complex system with constant endogenous and exogenous dynamics. Even if we do not notice it, the lithosphere plates are shifting several centimetres per year. But that is enough for new belts of mountains and oceans to be formed or disappear again in geological periods.
Each year, around 16 bill. tonnes particulate sediment materials are carried by rivers into the sea (»1). In addition come around 4 bill. tonnes substances dissolved and conveyed in the river water. Around 1.8 bill. tonnes dust from the desert areas are carried by wind to the oceans each...