The Ice age
Could you believe that once upon a time, Neuchâtel was covered in ice? That was 21,000 years ago when Europe was in the grip of the Würm glaciation, the last of such episodes to take over the continent. A long distant past when rocks used to be carried around by glaciers
Through the study of rock layers and fossils, scientists have defined geological divisions (eon, era, period, etc.). We are currently living in the geological epoch called the Holocene. The previous epoch was the Pleistocene, which lasted from 2.58 million to 11,700 years before present (BP). During this period, the Earth's climate was punctuated by very cold periods, the glaciations, followed by warming phases, the interglacial periods. The glaciations lasted from 50,000 to 100,000 years, and our region experienced 17 of them.
During the last ice age, the Würm Ice Age, a giant glacier covered most of Switzerland. It originated in the Alps and advanced, carrying immense blocks of rock with it. As temperatures rose, the glacier melted and retreated, leaving traces in the landscape.
Forecasts on as to when the next glaciation might happen are the more difficult to make as the pressures exerted by human kind on the environment are likely to affect the climate's future.
During the Würm glaciation (115,000-11,700 years BP) most of Switzerland was covered in ice.
Not only have the glaciers contributed to shape their environment (carved valleys, glaciofluvial terraces) they have also dispersed moraines and rocks along their trails
Pierre-à-Bot, an erratic boulder a few kilometers from here, originates from the Mont-Blanc massif. it weighs 3,000 tons, which is as much as 2,000 cows or 500 elephants. It journeyed 120 kilometers as the crow flies, on the back of the glacier du Rhône. Pierre-à-Bot means « toad boulder » in reference to its shape.
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Continue your journey
You have just walked out of the sculpted landscapes of the Ice age. Now your journey continues on to learn more about the first steps of human kind. See whar comes next by exploring the following stage.