On the river terrace

Looking at the shape of the landscape, one can see a step-like rise of the terrain from the Main river to Wicker. The flat surfaces are known as "terraces". They are separated from each other by steeper slopes. The steps in the landscape were produced by the River Main, which initially deposited gravel and then cut its bed into the material.

The gravel terraces were created during the climate change between cold and warmer periods. In the cold periods frost weathering produced large amounts of coarse rock rubble, which was transported to the Main by torrential melt water streams. The gravel accumulated in the wide but flat river bed. As the climate changed, more water flowed in the Main and the river cut into the gravel beds.

At the same time, the Taunus Mountains were uplifted, thus intensifying the incision into the landscape. Seven Main river terraces can be identified from the valley to the edge of the Taunus Mountains.

Sandy soils are light soils: the loose sand facilitates deep penetration of the soil by the vine roots. Sandy soils are easy to till.

Sandy soils are often poor: they contain much quartz, but very little exchangeable nutrients.

Sandy soils are warm soils: they contain little water, but a lot of air so that they heat up much earlier than other soils.