!!!Löss

Loess, pale-yellow, porous, very fine-grained, limy sedimentary 
deposit, which was transported by the wind during the  Ice Age from 
the gravel terraces of large rivers, covers large parts of the 
Weinviertel region and the east border of the Waldviertel region, the 
Alpine foothills, the Marchfeld region and northern Burgenland. The 
landscape is characterised by steep incisions in dry valleys 
("Racheln") and ravines with vertical walls, which are often shaped 
into "Kellergassen", narrow streets bordered with wine cellars. At the 
border of Donautal valley some (particularly near Krems) 
loess-terraces were formed.

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Loess produces nutritious, limy, dry-warm soils which weather into 
chernozem. In Lower Austria their natural ground vegetation shows 
typical representatives of dry-ground flourishing Pannonian flora. The 
fertile loess soils, which are easy to cultivate, favour agricultural 
activity. Hence the Loess regions are the oldest places of settlement 
in Austria and have been continuously inhabited since the Stone Age. 
Today they are mainly used for the cultivation of vine, for which they 
are particularly favourable, but they also represent the most fertile 
farmland in Austria, on which mainly wheat and sugar beet is grown.


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