10. Morphological Transformation of the Landscape in Lower Lusatia by Opencast Mining

The special history of the landscape of Lower Lusatia starts with the formation of lignite seams mainly in the Miocene, in near-coastal swampy forests with interruptions by marine transgressions. During the Quaternary, the area was affected by Elsterian and Saalian advances of the Fennoscandian Ice Sheets. The Saalian glacial cycle can be separated into the older Drenthe advance, forming the southern part of the area, including deeply incised glaciofluvial channels. The oscillations of the younger Warthe advance caused deep-seated glacitectonic disturbances. They resulted in two end moraine ridges forming the Niederlausitzer Grenzwall (Lower Lusatian Ridge) as a prominent morphological feature between the Lusatia ice-marginal valley to the south and the Glogau-Baruth ice-marginal valley to the north. Since the nineteenth century, the exploitation of the lignite seams in opencast mines has been pushed forward. This caused a fundamental transformation of the landscape. The recultivation of former dump areas as well as the flooding of deep-lying parts of the former mines is still in progress. Changes of the ecological situation—the formation of lakes in a former area without lakes—hydrological problems, and numerous slope stabilization problems, as well as the slow transformation into a touristic area, will occupy mankind for decades to come.