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Lower Saxon Hills

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The Lower Saxon Hills ( German : Niedersächsisches Bergland ) are one of the 73 natural regions in Germany defined by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN). Geographically it covers roughly the same area as the Weser Uplands ( German : Weserbergland ) in its wider sense.

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14-611: The region is part of Germany's Central Uplands with hills ranging up to 528 m above  sea level (NN) in height that extend across northeast North Rhine-Westphalia , southern Lower Saxony and northern Hesse . It is classified as region number D 36 by the BfN; its full name being the Niedersächsisches Bergland (mit Weser- und Leine-Bergland (Lower Saxon Hills, including the Weser and Leine Hills). D 36

28-880: A graben between two horsts – the Vosges mountains (in France ) and the Black Forest (in Germany ), and also the Rila – Rhodope Massif in Bulgaria , Southeast Europe , including the well defined horsts of Belasitsa (linear horst), Rila mountain (vaulted domed shaped horst) and Pirin mountain – a horst forming a massive anticline situated between the complex graben valleys of Struma and that of Mesta . Tilted type block mountains have one gently sloping side and one steep side with an exposed scarp, and are common in

42-468: Is a newly defined region that incorporates 3 geographical units from the old system: numbers 36, 37 and 53, and includes all parts of the Weser Uplands ( Weserbergland ) in both its narrower and a wider sense. That said, all three elements of the region, despite their misleading names, cover far more than is generally meant in everyday language or in atlases by the term Weserbergland . In addition

56-733: Is one of the three major natural regions of Germany . It stretches east to west across the country. To the north lies the North German Plain or Northern Lowland ; to the south, the Alps and the Alpine Foreland . The German Central Uplands, like the Scandinavian and British mountain ranges and the Urals , belong to the oldest mountains of Europe, even if their present-day appearance has only developed relatively recently. In

70-1023: Is the local intensity of exogenous processes. The table lists the ranges peaking over 300 m above sea level widely seen as part of the Central Uplands. The coordinates are of the respective peaks. Many of the uplands overlap. The ranges are listed by height. Download coordinates as: [REDACTED] Media related to Mittelgebirge at Wikimedia Commons [REDACTED] The dictionary definition of Mittelgebirge at Wiktionary Fault block Fault blocks are very large blocks of rock, sometimes hundreds of kilometres in extent, created by tectonic and localized stresses in Earth's crust . Large areas of bedrock are broken up into blocks by faults . Blocks are characterized by relatively uniform lithology . The largest of these fault blocks are called crustal blocks . Large crustal blocks broken off from tectonic plates are called terranes . Those terranes which are

84-575: The Carboniferous , i.e. about 350 million years ago, Variscan mountain ranges were formed in central Europe by the uplifting caused by tectonic plate collision. Immediately after their formation the erosion of the mountains began under the influence of exogenous processes during the Permian period. During the Triassic period, which began about 225 million years ago, what is now central Europe

98-591: The East African Rift zone. Death Valley in California is a smaller example. There are two main types of block mountains; uplifted blocks between two faults and tilted blocks mainly controlled by one fault. Lifted type block mountains have two steep sides exposing both sides scarps, leading to the horst and graben terrain seen in various parts of Europe including the Upper Rhine valley,

112-813: The Harz ), or downfaulted (trough faults or graben such as the Upper Rhine Valley ) or thrust over one another (tilted fault blocks such as the Ore Mountains ). Thus the German Central Uplands exhibit the widest variety of forms, something that is also attributable to the erosion of sediments from the Mesozoic ( Triassic , Jurassic and Cretaceous ). In some ranges the sediments have been relatively well-preserved, in others they have been carried away completely. The determining factor

126-861: The Weser Uplands in its narrower sense are indicated by (W); similarly the which are normally included in the Leine Uplands are annotated with (L): In addition to the Osning (= Teutoburg Forest ) and the Wiehen Hills, historic landscapes like the Tecklenburger Land und Osnabrücker Land are also part of this region. The Weser Valley between Bad Karlshafen and Porta Westfalica also belongs to this area. 52°0′0″N 9°0′0″E  /  52.00000°N 9.00000°E  / 52.00000; 9.00000 Central Uplands The Central Uplands ( German : die Mittelgebirge )

140-657: The Weser-Leine Hills sub-division (37) includes the whole of the Leine Uplands ( Leinebergland ), whilst the Harz mountains, admittedly are only partly in Lower Saxony, are clearly older in geological time scale and have been given their own natural region (D37) rather than being grouped with the lower Saxon Hills. The following tables show the landscape sub-divisions in the Lower Saxon Hills. Those regions which are normally considered part of

154-621: The beginning of the Cenozoic era, some 70 million years ago, the process of erosion of the Hercynian mountain ranges changed. During the Tertiary , alpidic mountain building took place, in the course of which strong forces deformed the stumps of the Hercynian mountains. As these rocks were already folded, further tension led to cracks and fractures, which in turn created fault blocks . These blocks were later uplifted (forming horsts such as

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168-431: The faults have a large vertical displacement. Adjacent raised blocks ( horsts ) and down-dropped blocks ( grabens ) can form high escarpments . Often the movement of these blocks is accompanied by tilting, due to compaction or stretching of the crust at that point. Fault-block mountains often result from rifting , an indicator of extensional tectonics . These can be small or form extensive rift valley systems, such as

182-594: The full thickness of the lithosphere are called microplates. Continent-sized blocks are called variously microcontinents, continental ribbons, H-blocks, extensional allochthons and outer highs. Because most stresses relate to the tectonic activity of moving plates , most motion between blocks is horizontal, that is parallel to the Earth's crust by strike-slip faults . However vertical movement of blocks produces much more dramatic results. Landforms ( mountains , hills, ridges, lakes, valleys, etc.) are sometimes formed when

196-544: Was sometimes above and sometimes below sea level. As a result, there are various layers of sedimentary rock in the Central Uplands: in most cases new red sandstone has been laid down as the terrestrial layer of rock and keuper and muschelkalk as marine sedimentary layers. The Jurassic period primarily saw the formation of limestone , whilst chalk was the main deposition from the Cretaceous period. With

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