Mössingen

Geschichte

Mössingen is a town in the district of Tübingen, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated north of the Swabian Jura, about 13 km south of Tübingen.Geographical locationMössingen is located on the northern edge of the Swabian Jura in the Valley of the Steinlach, a right tributary of the Neckar. The lowest point of the urban area is 435 m NN at the Untere Mühle (lower mill) on the Steinlach, the highest point is on the top of Dreifürstenstein with 853.5 NN.GeologyMössingen is in the area of a convoluted rock sequence from clays, sandstones, marls and limestone benches of Black, Brown and White Jurassic (Lias, Dogger and Malm). Most important are the more than 100 m thick banked limestones of the White Jura β constituting the highly visible edge of the Swabian Jura.On 12 April 1983, after persistent rains, the largest landslide in Baden-Württemberg took place in the Mössingen district at the Hirschkopf (stag head), ) due to the layered conditions of different rocks of the edge of the Alb (Albtrauf). Hard limes are stored here on plastic marls and clays. Furthermore, rock material is continually transported away by natural erosion, so it must come inevitably sooner or later to such a slide. On 12 May 2006, this area was included to the list of National Geotops.