Geological overview Saxony-Anhalt (GÜK400)

The presentation service for the geological overview of Saxony-Anhalt is being revised and is currently not available. The data of the Geological Survey are mainly based on the map Geological Overview of Saxony-Anhalt on a scale of 1:400 000 with a representation of the surface geological units as well as the geological conditions of the deeper subsoil, covering the most recent geological formations Quaternary and Tertiary (Kenozoic). Saxony-Anhalt is mostly covered by quaternary loose rocks, but various older rocks are also common in the Harz and the southern part of the country. Rocks of the proterozoic and old paleozoic agents only occur locally, in a few narrowly limited protrusions to the surface. Crystalline slates and deep rocks of the Central German Crystalline Zone occur at Kyffhäuser. The rhenohercynic includes the greywacken spread on the surface in the resin and locally in the area of the Braechtingen-Roßlauer plaice in braidings, stalks and gommers, clay slates, pebble slates and quartzites with the interventions of diabasses, keratophyrs and associated tuffs of the Devon and Dinant. In the Devon, reef limestones were created on thresholds such as Elbingerode. Widely used in the under resin are slip masses or olistho currents, resedimented rock masses dissolved and resedimented by rearrangement. The transition or molasse floor consists of rocks of the upper carbon (siles) and the lower perm (red-lying). Characteristic is the occurrence of volcanic rocks in the form of acidic to intermediate lavender and ignimbrites (melting tuffs) as well as subordinate to basic volcanoes. The main distribution areas are the Halle area and the area around Flechtingen as well as the southeastern Harz foreland near Eisleben and Mansfeld. Further deposits lie near Ilfeld north of Nordhausen and Meisdorf south of Aschersleben. The Table Deck Mountains begin with the Zechstein, which is characterised by powerful salt deposits – rock salt and caliph seams – as well as anhydrite, gypsum and carbonates. At the base lies the copper slate, which is only about 30 cm thick. Rocks of the zechstone enter the surface in the border of the resin, where they are recognizable in the map image as blue edge stripes. The Triassic rocks – Buntsandstein, Muschelkalk and Keuper – are widespread in Saxony-Anhalt and enter the surface north of the Harz in Subherzyn and south of the Harz in the Thuringian valley. On the other hand, the sediments of the Jura and the chalk are limited to the Subherzyn and the Fläming-Altmark-Sink in northeastern Saxony-Anhalt. The kenozoic loose rock floor begins locally with low solidified sands and sludges of Maastricht (Upper Cretaceous). The main component is the deposits of the tertiary – sands, silts and clays with lignite interventions. They are represented in the north and east of Saxony-Anhalt with largely fully developed profiles from the Paleocene to the Miocene. In the south, powerful lignite deposits are developed, especially in the area of sinks, such as the Geiseltal near Merseburg. Stratigraphically, these are mainly deposits of the Eocene and the Oligocene. The deposits of the quaternary take up the largest areas in the map image. Locally distributed fluviatile gills of the Old and Early Pleistocene prove the existence of early river systems. Glacilimnic pelvic formations – ligament sludge and fine sands – as well as sliders of the Elster Cold Period fill Quaternary base depressions and can reach local widths of 100 – 200 m or more. The Holstein warm period left limnic deposits in a variety of local basins. In the northern Altmark, the Paludinen layers – sludges and clays with shell remains – are spread in the underground. The rivers left powerful gravel bodies, the main or middle terraces, especially at the beginning of the Saale cold period. Today’s landscape was decisively shaped by the ice of the Saale Cold Age. It left end moraines, base moraine areas with powerful plains and sanders. Limnic deposits of the Eemwarm period form narrowly limited occurrences. Glacial formations of the Vistula-cold period – slags, meltwater sands and end moraines – are limited to the northeast of Saxony-Anhalt. In the lowlands sands of the Urstromtäler formed. The most important is the Magdeburg Urstrom Valley, which is now flown through by the Elbe. Wide areas in the south and central part of Saxony-Anhalt are covered by Löss, a calcareous sludge of Aeolian formation. The Holocene is represented by sandy and gravel formations of the lower terrace in the river valleys and by Auelehm. In other lowlands there are moors and peat.