Munich gravel plain  The Munich gravel plain () is an Outwash plain in Upper Bavaria, Germany, formed during Late Pleistocene glacial periods. Characterized by its very wide extension, it comprises sandur terraces and the floodplain of the Isar river. These most recent deposits overlie the Neogene Molasse basin of the Alpine Foreland, which in contrast comprises fine-grained fluviatile and lacustrine facies. The plain covers a triangular area of around . The three corners corresponded with the town of Weyarn, between Miesbach and Holzkirchen in the southeast, Moosburg an der Isar in the northeast and Maisach in the west. Munich city and nearly all its peripheral districts are situated on top of the flat gravel plain. As a consequence the city, in contrast to the surrounding counties in the north, south and west, has almost no topographic features. However, the waters of the Isar river have cut into the Quaternary ground in several stages and caused the typical terrace levels within the city. The plain drops to the northeast from initially around above sea level to approximately , a decisive factor for the formation of the large Dachauer Moors, the Freisinger Moor and the Erdinger Moor. The gravel deposits of are the deepest in the south of Munich and decrease towards the north. According to an unambiguous stratigraphic record the formation process extended over three glacial periods. The massive Central Alpine pleistocene glaciers, that almost reached to the area of modern Munich, discharged not only water but also large amounts of soil and rock into the Alpine Foreland. When the glaciers melted during interglacial warm periods, huge quantities of gravel, debris and water were released and flushed to the north, where they were mainly deposited on the Munich gravel plain. The lowest strata contains solidified deposits from the Mindel glaciation, above it lies gravel from the Riss glaciation, which in turn is covered by the youngest layer, the rock scree from the Würm glaciation. Layers of clay in between represent the interim humus collections of the respective interglacial periods. All these ice age gravel deposits lie on top of the low hydraulic conductive sediments of the Molasse basin. The basin's sediment material of conglomerates, shales and debris have accumulated by erosion and denudation and formed in a sequence during the development of the Alps between around 50 to 3 million years ago.