Odenwald sandstone
The Odenwälder sandstone , also called Odenwälder Buntsandstein , is the main rock of the Buntsandstein-Odenwald in Hesse . It is a pale to pale red sandstone of the Lower Buntsandstein .
geology
The east and south-east of the Odenwald consists essentially of sand , silt and claystones that were deposited in the Lower Buntsandstein in a river and lake landscape around 250 million years ago. At that time there was a dry climate with large river systems that transported rock rubble but also kept falling dry. This created a sedimentation basin in which sand was deposited and, over time, condensed and cemented to sandstone.
The red Odenwälder red sandstone was deposited around 215 to 225 million years ago during the Triassic . The red sandstone is divided into the lower (older), the middle and the upper (younger) red sandstone. The middle red sandstone was formed from sand, gravel, scree under very dry, desert-like conditions and was consolidated by pressure through layers deposited over it. The layers of the upper red sandstone were deposited in shallow sea basins that occasionally dried up again. Wider valleys and gentler hills can be found where the softer upper sandstone stands. The middle red sandstone, on the other hand, is more silicified and harder. The slopes are steeper and the streams have dug themselves deeper. In the many millions of years during and after the formation of the red sandstone, the area was repeatedly below or above sea level. Further layers of rock, those of the mussel limestone , the Keuper and the Jura, were deposited. Due to the elevation of the Black Forest , Vosges , Odenwald and Palatinate Forest and the formation of the Upper Rhine Rift , the most raised layers of rock were also increasingly removed. In the western Odenwald, all layers except for the crystalline bedrock have disappeared. In the eastern Odenwald the layers of red sandstone were preserved. Further to the east and south-east the layers of shell limestone have not yet been removed and the red sandstone is submerged under the shell limestone. The landscape in the southern part of the Buntsandstein-Odenwald is shaped by the Neckar Valley, which separates the Kleiner Odenwald from the rest of the Odenwald. The Neckar has dug itself deep into the rising mountains of the Buntsandstein-Odenwald.
Mineral inventory
The components of the Odenwald red sandstone are: 56 percent quartz , 26 percent rock fragments, 15 percent feldspar , 3 percent opaque minerals and less than 1 percent accessories . The binding agent is mainly pebbly ( silica ) and partly clayey-ferritic (clay-iron). It is a feldspar-bearing fine sandy sandstone with numerous rock debris. The Odenwald sandstone is pale red to pale red; can have white or reddish brown circular spots in the millimeter range up to a maximum of one centimeter. These areas have little binding agent and are easily weathered .
Occurrence and use
The Odenwälder red sandstone is located in the Geo-Naturpark Bergstrasse-Odenwald in Hesse between Falkengesäß and Finkenbach south of Beerfelden. Other extraction sites are located at Hebstahl in Sensbachtal and at Grasellenbach on Bergstrasse in Hesse.
This sandstone is used for solid buildings, stair and floor slabs, window and door frames, monuments and in stone carving . It was installed as a baptismal font for the Catholic Church and as a twelve-tube fountain in Beerfelden as well as on the war memorial complex between Finkenbach and Beerfelden.
Similar rocks
Neckar valley sandstone , red Main sandstone as well as the Black Forest red sandstone are practically indistinguishable from the Odenwald red sandstone without geological investigations.
Web links
- Formation of red sandstone on the website of the Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Transport, Baden-Württemberg
- Geo-Nature Park Odenwald-Bergstrasse
literature
- Wolf-Dieter Grimm: picture atlas of important monument rocks of the Federal Republic of Germany. Edited by the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation. Lipp-Verlag, Munich 1990, ISBN 3-87490-535-7
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 49 ° 32 '52.6 " N , 8 ° 55' 50.8" E