--> Abstract: Saar-Nahe Basin Analysis – Continental Sediment Transport initiated by Strike-Slip (Carboniferous-Permian, W-Germany); #90063 (2007)

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Saar-Nahe Basin Analysis – Continental Sediment Transport initiated by Strike-Slip (Carboniferous-Permian, W-Germany)

 

Schaefer, Andreas1 (1) University of Bonn, 53115 Bonn, Germany

 

The Saar-Nahe Basin is the largest and best exposed Carboniferous-Permian continental molasse basin in the Central European Variscides. It owes a size of 300 x 100 km. An about 8.3 km thick package of strata is preserved: 0.1 km Namurian, 2.1 km Westphalian, 2.9 km Stephanian, and 3.2 km early Permian Rotliegend.

 

Syngenetic SW-ward oblique transtension at its NW boundary fault initiated the basin to develop as a strike-slip controlled half-graben. This led to a NE-ward oriented travel of the basin's depocentres in the Carboniferous and the Permian. The youngest stratigraphic storey exposes shingled alluvial fans at the boundary fault in the ultimate NE of the basin.

 

Cyclic fluvial environments of tropical Westphalian and Stephanian strata show a wide range of coarse-grained braided and medium-grained meandering environments, also lacustrine deltas and lake deposits with rich vertebrate faunas. Continental wetland floras led to a rich wealth of coal measures, industrially mined today.

 

In semiarid Rotliegend, alluvial environments developed, and intense volcanism provided intermediate lava flows, acidic ignimbrites and tuffs of about 500 m in thickness, also intrusives.

 

In late Cretaceous and early Tertiary, the basin was lifted and part of its Meso-Cenozoic overburden was removed, in places also the Rotliegend and the Stephanian – a thickness of about 4000 m totally. So, the Saar-Nahe Basin became exposed to one third of its surface today.

 

Well logs and seismic sections faciliate the reconstruction of the 3D structure of the basin and also the set-up of sedimentological models that reflect its development through time.

 

AAPG Search and Discover Article #90063©2007 AAPG Annual Convention, Long Beach, California