<< Our Photo Pages >> Ahlen Dicker Stein - Natural Stone / Erratic / Other Natural Feature in Germany in North Rhine-Westphalia
Submitted by Andreas on Tuesday, 01 December 2009 Page Views: 5273
Natural PlacesSite Name: Ahlen Dicker SteinCountry: Germany
NOTE: This site is 0.74 km away from the location you searched for.
Land: North Rhine-Westphalia Type: Natural Stone / Erratic / Other Natural Feature
Nearest Town: Hamm Nearest Village: Ahlen
Latitude: 51.747900N Longitude: 7.898800E
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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Dicker Stein (corresponding translations: "big stone", "thick stone" etc.) was found in 1911 in a loam pit at a local brick plant, about 600 meters southeast of its current location.
In 1916 the stone was transferred to the city.
At the beginning of the transport it was planned to move the stone to the city park, north of the Werse river. But due to the stone's weight it was impossible to use the bridge over the river.
So the erratic got its new home in a small park at the southern edge of the Ahlen city, about 600 meters northwest of the place of discovery.
The impressive erratic is approximately 5 metres long, 3.40 Meters wide at the widest place and about 2.40 Meters tall. It's circumference is about 13.80 Meters and the volume about 29 cubic Meters, and the weight about 63 tons.
Dicker Stein is the largest (known) erratic of the Münsterland and the third largest in the whole of Westphalia.
Originally the stone most probably was located at the northwestern Teutoburger Wald.
But with the extending ice during the glacial period (Saale period, about 240000-125000 BCE) the stone was progressively moved to Ahlen.
With just about 50 km the erratic's journey was rather short, in comparison with the scandinavian erratics who often travelled about 700-1000 km.
Another peculiarity of the stone is its rather low geological age: With "just" 135 Million years Dicker Stein is considerable younger than its scandinavian mates who mostly are 1,4-1,8 billion (german: Milliarden) years old.
The Ahlen erratic consists of quarz-sandstone from the early Cretaceous period (= Kreidezeit).
Erratics from sandstone are comparatively seldom, whereas most erratics consist of granite or gneiss.
Other examples for sandstone-erratics, likewise with westphalian origins and from similar geological age as the Ahlen specimen, were found about 20 km west of Ahlen at Capelle (weight 12-13 tons) as well as northwest of Münster at Horstmar (weight about 45 tons, volume about 20 cubic metres).
About one year before Dicker Stein was found there had been another glacial discovery at Ahlen, not far from the site: In 1910 the nearly complete skeleton of a male Woolly Mammoth (Mammonteus primigenius) from the late Weichsel period, had been found in a clay pit.
This bull can be visited at the geological-palaeontological museum of the Münster university.
References:
Heimatbuch der Stadt Ahlen, Ahlen 1929
K.H.Otto: Wie die Findlinge nach Westfalen kamen, in: Siedlung und Landschaft in Westfalen, vol. 35, 2007, p. 38-39
E.Speetzen: Findlinge in Nordrhein-Westfalen, in: H.G.Horn (Ed.): Neandertaler + Co., Eiszeitjägern auf der Spur- Streifzüge durch die Urgeschichte Nordrhein-Westfalens, Mainz 2006, p. 53-68
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