TY - JOUR

T1 - The Heidelberg Basin, Upper Rhine Graben (Germany)

T2 - A unique archive of Quaternary sediments in Central Europe

AU - Gabriel, Gerald

AU - Ellwanger, Dietrich

AU - Hoselmann, Christian

AU - Weidenfeller, Michael

AU - Wielandt-Schuster, Ulrike

N1 - Funding Information: A drilling project is always a complex task, but even more so if several boreholes at different locations have to be drilled. We are deeply grateful to all colleagues who have been engaged in the field surveys, the drilling activities, and the laboratory work, who have provided scientific input to the project, and who have contributed to the project by their administrative work. Unfortunately we cannot mention them all personally here, because the length of the acknowledgement is limited. Financial support for the new boreholes and scientific studies was provided by the Leibniz Institute for Applied Geophysics and the geological surveys of Baden-Württemberg, Hessen, and Rheinland-Pfalz . We thank the former and present directors and presidents of these institutions, Prof. Dr. U. Yaramanci, Prof. Dr. H.-J. Kümpel, Prof. Dr. R. Watzel, Ltd. Bergdirektor V. Dennert, Prof. Dr. B. Stribrny, Dr. R. Becker, and Prof. Dr. H. Ehses. The cored boreholes Ludwigshafen-Parkinsel were made available by Technische Werke Ludwigshafen. Part of the ongoing work will be sponsored for the next years by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation) , what is also gratefully acknowledged. The authors thank the reviewer P.L. Gibbard for his valuable comments and suggestions that helped to improve the manuscript.

PY - 2013/3/28

Y1 - 2013/3/28

N2 - The Heidelberg Basin, in the German part of the northern Upper Rhine Graben, hosts one of the thickest successions of Plio-/Pleistocene sediments in Central Europe. From reflection seismic surveys and new research boreholes, it is known that Pleistocene sediments amount to more than 500 m thickness. The basin sediments originated both from local source areas, i.e. the highlands along the graben shoulders, and from regional source areas, i.e. the Alps. Although temporal hiatuses probably exist, the deposits are expected to be more or less complete because this part of the Upper Rhine Graben has undergone continuous subsidence in the past.Currently, the Heidelberg Basin is under investigation by a scientific drilling project. New cored boreholes have been realized at three different locations, spaced 15 km from each other. This concept provides complementing information and enables a detailed characterization of the predominantly fluvial deposits. The project aims to develop a stratigraphic reference profile of the Quaternary for this region north of the Alps, to understand how the sedimentation was controlled by tectonics and past climate change, and to derive proxy data of environmental changes.The new core material demonstrates that the Heidelberg Basin would be a possible key location for Quaternary stratigraphy in Central Europe. Information about Pleistocene periods of cold and warm climate is found within this one sediment succession in superposition; the temporal resolution of the sediment succession is high. Due to its mid-continental location it links northern and southern Europe, as well as western and eastern Europe. Based on a detailed analysis of the new drill cores a new lithostratigraphy for the northern part of the Upper Rhine Graben is developed in a first step. With the Mannheim Formation, the Ludwigshafen Formation, the Viernheim Formation, and the Iffezheim Formation, four new lithostratigraphic units of the northern Upper Rhine Graben are officially introduced. Furthermore, a new debate about identification of Basal Quaternary arises from the new research boreholes. Whereas during the last decades petrological markers were used to define Basal Quaternary, i.e. the first deposition of Alpine sediments or carbonate content, this definition fails in the depocentre of the basin. Several rock physical properties, e.g. the natural gamma radiation and the magnetic susceptibilities, reveal significant changes at the Basal Quaternary. The driving forces of these changes have to be studied in more detail in the future.

AB - The Heidelberg Basin, in the German part of the northern Upper Rhine Graben, hosts one of the thickest successions of Plio-/Pleistocene sediments in Central Europe. From reflection seismic surveys and new research boreholes, it is known that Pleistocene sediments amount to more than 500 m thickness. The basin sediments originated both from local source areas, i.e. the highlands along the graben shoulders, and from regional source areas, i.e. the Alps. Although temporal hiatuses probably exist, the deposits are expected to be more or less complete because this part of the Upper Rhine Graben has undergone continuous subsidence in the past.Currently, the Heidelberg Basin is under investigation by a scientific drilling project. New cored boreholes have been realized at three different locations, spaced 15 km from each other. This concept provides complementing information and enables a detailed characterization of the predominantly fluvial deposits. The project aims to develop a stratigraphic reference profile of the Quaternary for this region north of the Alps, to understand how the sedimentation was controlled by tectonics and past climate change, and to derive proxy data of environmental changes.The new core material demonstrates that the Heidelberg Basin would be a possible key location for Quaternary stratigraphy in Central Europe. Information about Pleistocene periods of cold and warm climate is found within this one sediment succession in superposition; the temporal resolution of the sediment succession is high. Due to its mid-continental location it links northern and southern Europe, as well as western and eastern Europe. Based on a detailed analysis of the new drill cores a new lithostratigraphy for the northern part of the Upper Rhine Graben is developed in a first step. With the Mannheim Formation, the Ludwigshafen Formation, the Viernheim Formation, and the Iffezheim Formation, four new lithostratigraphic units of the northern Upper Rhine Graben are officially introduced. Furthermore, a new debate about identification of Basal Quaternary arises from the new research boreholes. Whereas during the last decades petrological markers were used to define Basal Quaternary, i.e. the first deposition of Alpine sediments or carbonate content, this definition fails in the depocentre of the basin. Several rock physical properties, e.g. the natural gamma radiation and the magnetic susceptibilities, reveal significant changes at the Basal Quaternary. The driving forces of these changes have to be studied in more detail in the future.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84875095353&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.quaint.2012.10.044

DO - 10.1016/j.quaint.2012.10.044

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:84875095353

VL - 292

SP - 43

EP - 58

JO - Quaternary international

JF - Quaternary international

SN - 1040-6182

ER -