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The Rotliegend, Rotliegend Group or Rotliegendes (German : the underlying red) is a lithostratigraphic unit (a sequence of rock strata) of latest Carboniferous to Guadalupian (middle Permian) age that is found in the subsurface of large areas in western and central Europe. The Rotliegend mainly consists of sandstone layers. It is usually covered by the Zechstein and lies on top of regionally different formations of late Carboniferous age.
The name Rotliegend has in the past not only been used to address the rock strata themselves, but also the time span in which they were formed (in which case the Rotliegend was considered a series or subsystem of the Permian). This time span corresponds roughly with the length of the Cisuralian epoch.
In large parts of Pangaea, the last phases of the Hercynian orogeny were still ongoing during the start of the Permian. At the same time local crustal extension formed intramontane basins such as the large Permian Basin which covered parts of present-day Germany, Poland, Denmark, the North Sea, the Baltic Sea and the Netherlands. The early development of the basin went hand in hand with volcanism. Apart from these volcanic deposits the basin was filled by the erosional products of the Hercynian mountains to the south: mostly sands and gravels deposited under an arid and warm climate. [1]
In the north of Germany and in the Netherlands, the Rotliegend is usually subdivided into two groups: a Lower Rotliegend Group (mostly volcanic rocks: tuffs and basaltic lavas) and an Upper Rotliegend Group (sandstones and siltstones). During the formation of the lower group the basin was still small and the deposition was restricted to the centre of the basin in the southeastern North Sea and northern Germany, this group is very limited in thickness in the Dutch subsurface. The upper group has a larger arial distribution since the basin had grown wider.
In Dutch lithostratigraphy, the Rotliegend lies on top of the late Carboniferous Limburg Group and below the Zechstein Group. The Upper Rotliegend Group is divided in the Silverpit Formation and Slochteren Formation, the last is an important reservoir for hydrocarbons. The German Bentheim Sandstone, which crops out in the Münsterland, is part of the Slochteren Formation.
The Rotliegend of northern Germany is continuous with that of the Netherlands. In other parts of Germany contemporaneous basins exist, such as the Saar-Nahe Basin, the Wetterau or the Saale Basin. The Rotliegend of these different intramontane basins is not easy to correlate and the lithostratigraphy of each basin has its own divisions (groups and formations).
The Thuringian Forest is a mountain range in the southern parts of the German state of Thuringia, running northwest to southeast. Skirting from its southerly source in foothills to a gorge on its north-west side is the Werra valley. On the other side of the Forest is an upper outcrop of the North German Plain, the Thuringian Basin, which includes the city Erfurt. The south and south-east continuation of the range is the highland often called the Thuringian-Vogtlandian Slate Mountains.
The London–Brabant Massif or London–Brabant Platform is, in the tectonic structure of Europe, a structural high or massif that stretches from the Rhineland in western Germany across northern Belgium and the North Sea to the sites of East Anglia and the middle Thames in southern England.
The geology of the Netherlands describes the geological sequence of the Netherlands. Large parts of the Netherlands today are below sea level and have in the past been covered by the sea or flooded at regular intervals. The modern Netherlands formed as a result of the interplay of the four main rivers and the influence of the North Sea and glaciers during ice-ages. The Netherlands is mostly composed of deltaic, coastal and eolian derived sediments during the Pleistocene glacial and interglacial periods.
The Zechstein is a unit of sedimentary rock layers of Late Permian (Lopingian) age located in the European Permian Basin which stretches from the east coast of England to northern Poland. The name Zechstein was formerly also used as a unit of time in the geologic timescale, but nowadays it is only used for the corresponding sedimentary deposits in Europe.
The geology of Cheshire in England consists mainly of Triassic sandstones and mudstones. To the north west of Cheshire, these rocks are heavily faulted and the underlying Carboniferous Coal Measures are thrown up. Around the areas of Poynton and Macclesfield, the coal is close to the surface and was easily mined. Below the Coal Measures is the Millstone Grit, which appears towards the Derbyshire border on the flanks of the Peak District dome.
The Gulf of Suez Rift is a continental rift zone that was active between the Late Oligocene and the end of the Miocene. It represented a continuation of the Red Sea Rift until break-up occurred in the middle Miocene, with most of the displacement on the newly developed Red Sea spreading centre being accommodated by the Dead Sea Transform. During its brief post-rift history, the deepest part of the remnant rift topography has been filled by the sea, creating the Gulf of Suez.
In geology, a group is a lithostratigraphic unit consisting of a series of related formations that have been classified together to form a group. Formations are the fundamental unit of stratigraphy. Groups may sometimes be combined into supergroups.
The geology of the North Sea describes the geological features such as channels, trenches, and ridges today and the geological history, plate tectonics, and geological events that created them.
The Germanic Trias Supergroup is a lithostratigraphic unit in the subsurface of large parts of western and central Europe and the North Sea. Almost all of the Germanic Trias was deposited during the Triassic period and consists of three clearly different units: Buntsandstein, Muschelkalk and Keuper, that gave the period its name. In the past the names of these three units were also used as units in the geologic timescale, but in modern literature they only have a lithostratigraphic meaning.
The Buntsandstein or Bunter sandstone is a lithostratigraphic and allostratigraphic unit in the subsurface of large parts of west and central Europe. The Buntsandstein predominantly consists of sandstone layers of the Lower Triassic series and is one of three characteristic Triassic units, together with the Muschelkalk and Keuper that form the Germanic Trias Supergroup.
The European Permian Basin is a thick sequence of sedimentary rocks deposited in a large sedimentary basin during the Permian period in Northern Europe. The basin underlies northern Poland, northern Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, a significant portion of the North Sea to the east coast of England and up to Scotland.
The Tambach Formation is an Early Permian-age geologic formation in central Germany. It consists of red to brown-colored sedimentary rocks such as conglomerate, sandstone, and mudstone, and is the oldest portion of the Upper Rotliegend within the Thuringian Forest Basin.
The geology of County Durham in northeast England consists of a basement of Lower Palaeozoic rocks overlain by a varying thickness of Carboniferous and Permo-Triassic sedimentary rocks which dip generally eastwards towards the North Sea. These have been intruded by a pluton, sills and dykes at various times from the Devonian Period to the Palaeogene. The whole is overlain by a suite of unconsolidated deposits of Quaternary age arising from glaciation and from other processes operating during the post-glacial period to the present. The geological interest of the west of the county was recognised by the designation in 2003 of the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty as a European Geopark.
The Kupferschiefer or Kupfermergel, is an extensive and remarkable sedimentary unit in Central Europe. The relatively monotonous succession is typically 30 to 60 centimetres and maximum 2 metres (6.6 ft) thick, but extends over an area of 600,000 square kilometres (230,000 sq mi) across the Southern Permian Basin. The Kupferschiefer can be found in outcrop or in the subsurface straddling six countries, including parts of the southern North Sea. The lateral equivalent outcropping in England is called Marl Slate.
The West Siberian petroleum basin is the largest hydrocarbon basin in the world covering an area of about 2.2 million km2, and is also the largest oil and gas producing region in Russia.
The main points that are discussed in the geology of Iran include the study of the geological and structural units or zones; stratigraphy; magmatism and igneous rocks; ophiolite series and ultramafic rocks; and orogenic events in Iran.
The North Sea basin is located in northern Europe and lies between the United Kingdom, and Norway just north of The Netherlands and can be divided into many sub-basins. The Southern North Sea basin is the largest gas producing basin in the UK continental shelf, with production coming from the lower Permian sandstones which are sealed by the upper Zechstein salt. The evolution of the North Sea basin occurred through multiple stages throughout the geologic timeline. First the creation of the Sub-Cambrian peneplain, followed by the Caledonian Orogeny in the late Silurian and early Devonian. Rift phases occurred in the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic which allowed the opening of the northeastern Atlantic. Differential uplift occurred in the late Paleogene and Neogene. The geology of the Southern North Sea basin has a complex history of basinal subsidence that had occurred in the Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic. Uplift events occurred which were then followed by crustal extension which allowed rocks to become folded and faulted late in the Paleozoic. Tectonic movements allowed for halokinesis to occur with more uplift in the Mesozoic followed by a major phase of inversion occurred in the Cenozoic affecting many basins in northwestern Europe. The overall saucer-shaped geometry of the southern North Sea Basin indicates that the major faults have not been actively controlling sediment distribution.
The North German Basin is a passive-active rift basin located in central and west Europe, lying within the southeasternmost portions of the North Sea and the southwestern Baltic Sea and across terrestrial portions of northern Germany, Netherlands, and Poland. The North German Basin is a sub-basin of the Southern Permian Basin, that accounts for a composite of intra-continental basins composed of Permian to Cenozoic sediments, which have accumulated to thicknesses around 10–12 kilometres (6–7.5 mi). The complex evolution of the basin takes place from the Permian to the Cenozoic, and is largely influenced by multiple stages of rifting, subsidence, and salt tectonic events. The North German Basin also accounts for a significant amount of Western Europe's natural gas resources, including one of the world's largest natural gas reservoir, the Groningen gas field.
The geology of Germany is heavily influenced by several phases of orogeny in the Paleozoic and the Cenozoic, by sedimentation in shelf seas and epicontinental seas and on plains in the Permian and Mesozoic as well as by the Quaternary glaciations.
The geology of Thailand includes deep crystalline metamorphic basement rocks, overlain by extensive sandstone, limestone, turbidites and some volcanic rocks. The region experienced complicated tectonics during the Paleozoic, long-running shallow water conditions and then renewed uplift and erosion in the past several million years ago.