--> Abstract: Rotliegend Conglomerates from the NE German Basin -Provenance and Tectonic Significance, by Tommy McCann; #90914(2000)

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Tommy McCann1
(1) GeoForschungsZentrum, Potsdam, Germany

Abstract: Rotliegend conglomerates from the NE German Basin - provenance and tectonic significance

The NE German Basin, containing more than 10-12 km of Phanerozoic strata, is part of the southern Rotliegend Basin, a series of connected basins extending across northern Europe from England to Poland. The NE German Basin contains ca. 2.5 km of Rotliegend sediments deposited following the cessation of the Late Carboniferous/Early Permian volcanic episode and a ca. 20 Ma period of erosion and non-deposition. The volcanic succession is up to ca. 2 km thick, with a total volume of ca. 48,000 km3, and was formed subsequent to the syn-late tectonic magmatism of the continent-continent collision of the Variscides. Early Rotliegend deposition was localized, but with increasing thermal subsidence the basin extended to the south.

Petrographic work has indicated that the Rotliegend-age sandstones are quartz-rich and derived predominantly from cratonic or recycled sources. Volcanic and sedimentary rock fragments form most of the labile grains. The succession was deposited in a relatively stable tectonic environments with sediment input derived largely from the Lower and Upper Palaeozoic strata of the Variscan hinterland and the Upper Carboniferous and Lower Permian volcanics.

The present study is concentrated on a suite of more than 50 conglomerates in order to examine, in detail, individual clast composition and derivation. The majority of the clasts can be related to intrabasinal sources within the underlying volcanic succession, but there is clear evidence of extra-basinal sources, suggesting a more complex series of transport pathways.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90914©2000 AAPG Annual Convention, New Orleans, Louisiana