Climate

Switzerland during the last ice age

Glacier Garden, Lucerne

Several times the territory of today's Switzerland was covered by ice and became ice-free again.

The painting by artist Ernst Hodel shows Lucerne against the Alpine panorama on a late-ice-age summer day 16,000 years ago.

Switzerland under ice 24,000 years ago

swisstopo

Venice 1709

Le lagon gelé en 1709, by Gabriele Bella, part of a lagoon which froze over in 1709, Venice, Italy

The ice ages

The six ice ages known to date are all named after rivers in southern Germany:

Biber, Donau, Guenz, Mindel, Riss and Wuerm ice ages.

Between the ice ages lay warm periods without ice and snow, with warm summers and dense forests.

Name and duration of the last 4 ice ages:

1. Guenz ice age: 600,000 - 540,000 years
2. Mindel ice age: 480,000 - 430,000 years
3. Riss ice age: 300,000 - 180,000 years
4. Wuerm ice age: 115,000 - 11,700 years