{{short description|Timespan in the glacial history of the Alps}} '''Gunz''', '''Günz''' or '''Gunz Complex''' is a timespan in the glacial history of the [[Alps]]. It started approximately one million years ago and ended about 370 000 years ago. Some sources put the end at 480 000 years ago. Deep sea core samples have identified approximately 5 glacial cycles of varying intensity during Gunz.<ref name="STD 2016">[http://www.stratigraphie.de/std/Bilder/5_2.pdf German Stratigraphic Commission: Stratigraphische Tabelle von Deutschland 2016]</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20160301101706/http://www.lgb-rlp.de/fileadmin/extern/stratigraphie/bay/litho/quart/all-strat.html ''Stratigraphische Tabellen des Bayerischen Geologischen Landesamtes.''] Ad hoc AG Geologie der Staatlichen Geologischen Dienste (SGD) and the BGR</ref>
== History of the term == The name '''Gunz glaciation''', '''Gunzian glaciation''' or '''Günz glacial stage''' ({{langx|de|Günz-Kaltzeit}}, also ''Günz-Glazial'', ''Günz-Komplex'' and ''Günz-Eiszeit'') goes back to [[Albrecht Penck]] and [[Eduard Brückner]], who named this ice age after the River [[Günz]] in their multi-volume work, ''Die Alpen im Eiszeitalter'' ("The Alps in the Ice Age Period") which was published between 1901 and 1909. Its [[Type locality (geology)|type region]] is the [[Iller-Lech Plateau]]. It is the oldest [[glaciation]] of the Pleistocene in the traditional, quadripartite glacial classification of the Alps. The Günz was thought to follow the [[Danube-Günz interglacial]] and was ended by the [[Günz-Haslach interglacial]].<ref>Whittow, John (1984). ''Dictionary of Physical Geography''. London: Penguin, 1984, p. 240. {{ISBN|0-14-051094-X}}.</ref><ref name="GK_Bayern">{{citation|surname1=Walter Freudenberger|surname2=Klaus Schwerd|title=Geologische Karte von Bayern 1:500000 mit Erläuterungen. 1 Karte + Erläuterungen + 8 Beilagen |edition=4|publisher=Bayrisches Geologisches Landesamt|location=Munich|year=1996|pages=238 ff|language=German}}</ref><ref name="Reinmann2004">{{citation|surname1=Ueli Reinmann|periodical=Jahrbuch des Oberaargaus|title=Auf den Spuren der Eiszeit im Raum Wangen a. A.: Neue Erkenntnisse auf Grund von bodenkundlichen Untersuchungen im Endmoränengebiet des Rhonegletschers|volume=47|year=2004|pages=135–152|language=German|url=http://www.digibern.ch/jahrbuch_oberaargau/jahrbuch_2004/JBOAG_2004_135_152_eiszeit_wangen.pdf}}{{Dead link|date=May 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>
The 2016 version of the detailed stratigraphic table by the German Stratigraphic Commission puts the start of Gunz in the late [[Calabrian (stage)|Calabrian]] (approximately one million years ago, earlier than MIS 19) and shows a continuity of glacial cycles with the following [[Mindel glaciation|Mindel]] stage, with the border arbitrarily put at the start of MIS 10 (approximately 374 000 years ago). Gunz corresponds roughly to the [[Cromerian stage]] in the glacial history of Northern Europe.<ref name="STD 2016"/>
== Glacial cycles == Deep sea core samples have identified approximately 10 [[marine isotope stage]]s (at least MIS 21 to MIS 11) during Gunz.<ref name="STD 2016"/> Thus, there have probably been about 5 glacial cycles of varying intensity during Gunz. During Gunz the 41 000 year glacial cycle of previous stages ([[Biber (geology)|Biber]] and [[Danube (geology)|Danube]]) had been replaced by a dominance of a 100,000-year cycle ([[Mid-Pleistocene Transition]]). The most intense glacials of Gunz ([[MIS 16]] and [[MIS 12]]) reached similar extents to those of the more recent [[Riss glaciation|Riss]] and [[Wurm glaciation|Wurm]] glacials.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://climatica.org.uk/climate-science-information/long-term-climate-change-milankovitch-cycles |title=Climatica |access-date=2019-03-23 |archive-date=2019-09-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190916140719/http://climatica.org.uk/climate-science-information/long-term-climate-change-milankovitch-cycles }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author1=Scott Elias|author2=Cary Mock|title=Encyclopedia of Quaternary Science|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TSTnzG6yetsC&pg=PT4257|year=2013|publisher=Newnes|isbn=978-0-444-53642-6|page=4257}}</ref> These have not been easy to identify in the geological record of the Alps, but MIS 16 has been identified with the [[Don Glaciation]] of Eastern Europe.<ref>[https://www.qpg.geog.cam.ac.uk/research/projects/nweurorivers/donglaciation.html Cambridge Quaternary Palaeoenvironments Group: Don Glaciation]</ref> The strong glacial MIS 12 has been problematic, and has sometimes been identified with the [[Mindel glaciation]], which would imply an end to Gunz already after MIS 13 (480 000 years ago).<ref>{{citation|author=K.A. Habbe|author2=D. Ellwanger|author3=R. Becker-Haumann |journal=Eiszeitalter und Gegenwart Quaternary Science Journal|title=Stratigraphische Begriffe für das Quartär des süddeutschen Alpenvorlandes|year=2007|volume=56 |issue=1/2 |pages=66–83|issn=0424-7116|language=de |doi=10.3285/eg.56.1-2.03|doi-access=free|hdl=11858/00-1735-0000-0001-B9FE-0|hdl-access=free}}</ref>
== See also == * [[Timeline of glaciation]]
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Literature== *{{citation |author=T. Litt |display-authors=etal |periodical=Newsletters in Stratigraphie |title=Das Quartär in der Stratigraphischen Tabelle von Deutschland 2002 |volume=41 |issue=1–3 |location=Berlin, Stuttgart |pages=385–399 |language=German |url=http://www.deuqua.de/strat/dokumente/Erlaeuterungen_STD02.pdf |access-date=2015-04-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923213916/http://www.deuqua.de/strat/dokumente/Erlaeuterungen_STD02.pdf |archive-date=2015-09-23 }} *{{citation|author1=Albrecht Penck |author2=Eduard Brückner |title=Die Alpen im Eiszeitalter |publisher=C.H. Tauchnitz |location=Leipzig |date=1901–1909 |language=German}} (3 volumes)
{{Alpine glaciations}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gunz glaciation}} [[Category:Pleistocene]] [[Category:Ice ages]] [[Category:Geology of the Alps]]