Geological Overview Saxony-Anhalt Surface (GÜK400)

The presentation service for the Geological Survey of Saxony-Anhalt is being revised and is currently not available (end quarter 1 2021). The geological overview map shows the rocks on the surface. Saxony-Anhalt is mostly covered by quaternary loose rocks, but various older rocks also appear in the Harz Mountains and in the southern part of the country. Rocks of the proterozoic and ancient paleozoic only occur locally, in a few narrowly limited projections to the surface. Crystalline slates and deep rocks of the Central German Crystalline Zone occur at the Kyffhäuser. The rhenohercynic includes grey wads, clay slate, pebble slate and quartzite with diabass, keratophyrs and associated tupes of the Devon and Dinant, spread in the resin and locally in the area of the Flechtingen-Roßlauer plaice near Flechtingen, Haldensleben and Gommern on the surface. In the Devon, reef limestones were created on thresholds as in Elbingerode. Widely used in the lower resin are slip compounds or olisthostrome, resediment-dissolved and resedimentated rock masses. The transition stock or molasse stock comprises rocks of the upper carbon (siles) and the lower perm (red-lying). Characteristic is the appearance of volcanic rocks in the form of acidic to intermediate lavenders and ignimbrites (melting bushes) as well as subordinate to basic vulcanites. The main distribution areas are the Halle area and the area around Flechtingen, as well as the southeastern Harz foreland near Eisleben and Mansfeld. Other deposits are located at Ilfeld north of Nordhausen and Meisdorf south of Aschersleben. The Table Deck Mountains begin with the Zechstone, which is characterised by powerful salt deposits — rock salt and potashes — as well as anhydrite, plaster and carbonates. At the base lies the only about 30 cm thick copper slate. Rocks of the Zechstone occur in the edge of the resin to the surface, where they are recognizable in the map image as a blue border strip. The rocks of the Triassic — colorful sandstone, mussel limestone and keuper — are widely spread in Saxony-Anhalt and enter the surface north of the Harz in the subhercyn and south of the Harz in the Thuringian sink. On the other hand, the sediments of the Jura and the chalk are limited to the Subherzyn and the Fläming-Altmark-Senke in northeastern Saxony-Anhalt. The Cenozoic loose rock stock begins locally with low solidified sands and silts of Maastricht (Upper Cretaceous). The main component is the deposits of the tertiary — sands, sludge and clays with lignite activations. They are represented in the north and east of Saxony-Anhalt with largely fully developed profiles from 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 quaternary deposits occupy the largest areas in the map image. Local fluvitile gravel of the ancient and early Pleistocene demonstrate the existence of earlier river systems. Glacilimnic pelvis formations — ligament and fine sands — as well as mooring gels of the Elster Cold Period fill quarterly depression and can reach local widths of 100-200 m and more. The Holstein Warm Period leftlim deposits in a variety of local basins. In the northern Altmark, the Paludinen layers — sludge and clay with shell remnants — are widespread in the underground. The rivers left powerful gravel bodies, the main or middle terraces, especially at the beginning of the cold season. Today’s landscape was decisively influenced by the ice of the Saale Cold Age. It left end moraines, ground moraine areas with powerful sloping gel and sander surfaces. Limnic deposits of the Eemwarm period form narrowly limited occurrences. Glaciary formations of the Vistula Cold Age — sliding gels, meltwater sands and final moraines — are limited to the northeast of Saxony-Anhalt. In the lowlands were formed sands of the original stream valleys. The most important is the Magdeburg Urstromtal, which is now flowed by the Elbe. Wide areas in the south and in the central part of Saxony-Anhalt are covered by Löss, a calcareous Schluff of Aeolian origin. The Holocene is represented by sandy and pebble formations of the low terrace in the river valleys and by Auelehm. In other lowlands there are moorland and peat.