Korneuburg Basin
Coordinates: 48 ° 25 ' N , 16 ° 23' E
The Korneuburg Basin is a small sedimentary basin on the eastern edge of the Alps north-west of Vienna . It extends from the Danube 15 to 20 km to the north with a width of 4 to 7 km and bears the name of the local district capital Korneuburg .
Geologically, it is an inner-alpine basin and the western continuation of the Vienna basin , from which it is separated by the narrow Vienna gate at the Danube bend north of the medieval Greifenstein castle . To the north - to the Weinviertel of Lower Austria - it gradually turns into the geologically differentiated Waschberg zone . The frame of the Korneuburg Basin is formed by two low mountain chains (360 m) made of flysch rocks: the Bisamberg in the east and the Rohrwald in the west , on whose southern slope Kreuzenstein Castle overlooks the Danube Valley. In the north-east it goes as a hill country into the bay of Kreuzstetten , on the north-west edge lies the striking pilgrimage mountain of Karnabrunn .
On the southeast edge of the basin near Stetten - about 5 km from the Danube Bend - the Weinviertel fossil world is a unique geological specimen, namely the largest fossil oyster reef in the world. In the Miocene (about 20 million years ago) there was a tropical shallow sea belonging to the Paratethys at the site of today's basin . On its southwestern edge, a huge tidal wave (probably a tsunami ) covered the giant oysters living there in a matter of seconds , which can now be viewed in a 400 m² hall. The originally flat reef has been tilted by about 24 degrees by tectonic movements since its formation in the Carpathian Mountains.
In addition to the oyster reef with around 60 species of mussels, other fossils from this area, which are unusually diverse, are exhibited in the fossil world Weinviertel in Stetten .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Exhibition guide of the fossil world
- ↑ Entry on Fossil World Weinviertel in the Austria Forum
Web links
- The Korneuburg Basin: Underlay, construction and development (pdf; 22 kB)
- Lower limit and structure of the Miocene in the Vienna Basin by Rudolf Grill (pdf; 1.0 MB)