Piesberg sandstone
The Piesbergsandstein , who also Piesbergquarzit , coal sandstone , Carboniferous quartzite or carbon quartzite is called, is in a closed deposits on Piesberg on the northern outskirts of Osnabrück won in southern Lower Saxony. This sandstone originated in the Upper Carboniferous and was mined until 2008.
Occurrence
300 million years ago in the Upper Carboniferous, the climate in southern Lower Saxony was very warm and rich in precipitation, and the vegetation developed primeval plants that, after they died, formed a coal deposit in which sand was stored that solidified. The sandstone deposits are narrowly regionally limited and the stone qualities therefore hardly differ. The sandstone banks are about 160 meters thick, of which the coal seams are about 30 to 40 meters high. The height of the mining walls can be up to 80 meters and it is possible to mine the deposit on six levels.
Rock description
In addition to coal, a fine to medium-grain sandstone deposit emerged, which is light gray to gray in color and is rarely larger-grained or conglomerate . The grain size is 0.2 to 0.5 millimeters, the grain shape is angular. The bond is quartzite. Due to its bonding, Piesberger sandstone is very good to good weather-resistant and sanding and peeling are hardly observed.
The mineral inventory of the Piesberg sandstone consists of rock fragments with 53 percent, quartz with 46 percent and muscovite with 1 percent and the accessories ( tourmaline ) with less than one percent.
Use and structures
This sandstone was used for solid structures, masonry and stone, curbs, cobblestones, gravel, as a water stone and breakwater.
Examples of its use as stone are the Haseschacht building on Piesberg (today the main building of the Industrial Culture Museum ) and the paving of the cathedral forecourt in Osnabrück.
literature
- Otto Sickenberg: stones and earth. The deposits and their management. Geology and Deposits of Lower Saxony , 5th vol. Dorn-Verlag, Bremen, Horn 1951, pp. 120ff.