Original paper
The Late Devonian „Kellwasser Event“ mass-extinction horizons in Germany: Restoring the type locality for science and geotourism
Luppold, Friedrich-Wilhelm; Röhling, Heinz-Gerd; George, Klaus; Schindler, Eberhard; Zellmer, Henning
Schriftenreihe der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Geowissenschaften Heft 66 (2010), p. 111 - 111
2 references
published: May 28, 2010
Open Access (paper may be downloaded free of charge)
Abstract
The Geopark Harz. Braunschweiger Land. Ostfalen comprises an area of some 100 km in E/W-direction according to the length of the Harz Mts. and some 120 km in N/S-direction. This area offers a survey over the last 450 million years of earth history and includes more than 300 registered geosites. On numerous “geotrails ” and at “geopoints” visitors can experience the Geopark attractions either independently or under the guidance of trained personnel. The Kellwasser Valley is one of the famous localities of the well-known Central-European basement mountain range Harz Mts. that offers a well documented mining and research history. It is situated at the southern edge of the Oker barrage near Altenau and is known to Geologists all over the world, because it is the type locality of the Kellwasser Horizons which are linked to one of the five major mass-extinction events in Earth history. The two rock units just below the Late Devonian Frasnian/Famennian stage boundary represent alternations of black limestones and shales intercalated in light grey cephalopod limestones deposited on deeper marine submarine rises.
Keywords
Germany • Geopark Harz • fossils • goniatites • trilobites • conodonts • cephalopod limestones