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They have a nice name and northern Netherlands is full of them: Green legacies from the ice age
🇳🇱 Netherlands /Culture & Society

They have a nice name and northern Netherlands is full of them: Green legacies from the ice age

From NRC Handelsblad · () Dutch

Translated from Dutch, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

In-depth Named sources Context piece
  • Physical geographer Anja Verbers researches pingoruins, circular depressions left by melting ice-age ice mounds in northern Netherlands.
  • These formations, remnants of the Weichselian period, are often filled with peat and can resemble other landscape features.
  • Verbers has identified thousands of these unique geological formations, contributing to a deeper understanding of the region's glacial past.

In the Dutch province of Drenthe, near the village of Zeijen, lies a small, marshy birch forest known as the Witteveen. This area, a few meters lower than the surrounding farmland, offers a stark contrast to the agricultural landscape and feels like entering a different world. The soft, springy ground underfoot is peat, which has made the area accessible after recent dry spells.

It's like entering another world. Very magical.

— Anja VerbersPhysical geographer Anja Verbers describing the Witteveen, a pingoruin in Drenthe.

This low-lying area is a pingoruin, a remnant from the coldest phase of the last ice age, the Weichselian period. Around 20,000 years ago, northern Netherlands transformed into a polar desert dotted with hills containing ice cores. These pingoes, an Inuit term meaning 'hill that grows,' form when a massive ice lens develops in the subsoil under extreme cold, pushing the overlying ground upward. As temperatures rise, the ice melts, leaving behind a circular depression.

Anja Verbers, a physical geographer, has spent two decades studying these pingoruins. She estimates that thousands of such circular depressions exist in the northern Netherlands. "In Drenthe alone, the count was 2,100 depressions when I started, and we have added another 300 in recent years," she noted. Verbers recently published the book "Pingoruïnes – bijzondere ijstijdrelicten in het landschap" (Pingoruins – special ice age relics in the landscape).

That growing happens when, under extremely cold conditions, a massive ice lens forms in the subsoil, pushing the overlying ground up.

— Anja VerbersAnja Verbers explaining the formation of pingoes.

Verbers cautions that not every circular depression is a pingoruin; some are formed by wind erosion. However, the Witteveen is one of the pingoruins she discovered. She estimates the ice mound during the ice age was about 25 meters high, similar to the current trees. As the ice melted, a lake formed, eventually filling with organic sediment and then peat. This infill often makes pingoruins difficult to identify in the field, typically appearing as depressions around 200 meters in diameter and a few meters lower than the surrounding terrain. Despite the challenge, the infill makes pingoruins valuable archives of the past.

In Drenthe alone, the count was 2,100 depressions when I started, and we have added another 300 in recent years.

— Anja VerbersAnja Verbers discussing the number of pingoruins identified in Drenthe.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by NRC Handelsblad in Dutch. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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