Distribution of soils and solifluction layers in landslide area of South-West Germany

As part of the MABIS research project (Mass movements in South and West-Germany) which was supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) detailed causal, age and risk analyses were carried out on several landslides. Investigations were carried out on the Swabian Jurassic escarpment (South-West Germany). The mass movements were examined by means of geomorphological and pedological field mapping, through the differentiation of the solifluction layers and through mineralogical analyses. These investigations aimed at distinguishing between Holocene and Pleistocene landslides, classifying different climatic cycles of slope evolution and gathering information about potential risk areas. It could be confirmed that large rotational landslides (earth-slump flows according to Vames 1978) occurred during the Pleistocene period, whereas during the Holocene period these fossil mass movements were only reworked and displaced.