page_title: Albtrauf
section_title: Geology
hierarchical_section_title: Albtrauf / Geology
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: LSG 1.16.078 „Gebiete um Bissingen und Ochsenwang“ im Landkreis Esslingen, Baden-Württemberg – Der Albtrauf, abrupt endet das Hochplateau, am baumbestandenen Abhang geht es ungefähr 200 m in die Tiefe. Der Weg im Vordergrund führt zum Breitenstein. English: The very edge of the Swabian Alb, fields at the left side, the slope of about 200 meters hight at the right side.
context_page_description: The term Albtrauf refers to the northwest facing escarpment of the Swabian Alps, situated in Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria. It is the most distinctive stepped slope within the alpine region of the South German Scarplands, leading roughly from the southwest to the northeast.
  The Albtrauf has its geological extension in the northeast, in the stepped slopes of the Franconian Jura and in the southwest and west among the Jurassic-era stepped slopes of the Baaralb, Hegaualb, Randen, Klettgau, Aargau as well as the Table Jura stretches from the city of Basel to the Ajoie and the French Scarplands.
  In geology and geomorphology, however, the term “Trauf” merely describes the brink of the stepped slopes where various stepped surfaces meet.
context_section_description: The Albtrauf is made up of an upper rock layer of the Brown Jurassic and lower and middle layers of  the White Jurassic. The harder layers of the Brown Jurassic act as the foundation of this bed and so form the highest, often weakly developed layer of the Alpine foothills. The Brown Jurassic differs regionally: Sandflaserschichten (Quenstedtsche Gliederung B β) in the eastern Alps, Blaukalke (B γ) in the mid Alps, oolithische Kalkmergel (B δ) in the western Alps. The lower section of the stepped slope are made up of the claystone layers of the Brown Jurassic, stretching to the Ornatenton Formation which ends this section. The equally soft Kalkmergel (W α) follows as the first layer of the White Jurassic. Hard limestone acts as a layer-former in the W β, (as reef limestone in the western Alps, and otherwise as the mural Wohlgeschichtete Kalk Formation), as well as in the W δ (reef limestone is found across the whole region, but especially in the young layers). In between these is a marl complex.
caption: Typical view along the edge of the Albtrauf: the relatively level plateau, often used for agriculture, abruptly meets the mostly wooded slope.
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