Quarry near Kottingwörth
The quarry near Kottingwörth is an abandoned quarry near Kottingwörth , a district of Beilngries , in the Eichstätt district in Upper Bavaria , Bavaria .
location
The quarry is located about 1.3 km east of Kottingwörth, on the southern slope of the Arzberg. The Arzberg is Europe's largest breakthrough mountain .
description
In the up to 70 meters high degradation walls of the former quarry the well-layered are limestone and marl stones of Malms minded . The sequence of layers here covers a deposition period of around 5 million years. The light gray to light yellow, fine-plate limestone enables a detailed look into the development of the living world in the sea of the Upper Jura . The area has been designated as a geotope (176A017) by the Bavarian State Office for the Environment and classified as valuable. In 2008 it was included in the list of the 100 most beautiful geotopes in Bavaria. The site is also part of the nature reserve protection zone in the Altmühltal nature park (LSG-00565.01, WDPA: 396115), FFH area Mittleres Altmühltal with Wellheimer dry valley and Schambachtal (7132-371, WDPA: 555521819) and Natura2000 bird sanctuary, rock and slope forests in Altheimerühlt Dry Valley (7132-471, WDPA: 555537875).
Emergence
About 150 million years ago at the time of the Malm in the Upper Jura, southern Germany was covered by a shallow subtropical shelf sea . A forerunner of today's Mediterranean Sea bordered this in the south . In the north there were islands and larger land masses. Cold and calcareous deep waters streamed into this shallow shelf sea from the south. When they were heated, lime was precipitated by bacteria, spherical blue-green algae and other living beings, and this settled on the ground. At the same time, rivers washed clayey material from the northern mainland into the sea. Depending on the prevalence of one or the other type of sedimentation , a characteristic alternation of limestone and marl stones was created in the lower and middle Malm.
As a result, hundreds of layers of limestone pile up on top of each other, separated by joints or thin layers of marl. Two gray marl horizons, the Platynota and Crussoliensis marl, achieve greater thickness. Ammonites and belemnites in numerous forms were found mainly in these marl layers . The changing fossil content in the different layers thus proves the further development of the living world in the former Jurassic Sea .
Arzberg formation
Here on the Arzberg, a so-called guiding profile was created by geologists . Every single limestone layer was scientifically recorded and documented with its properties, fossil content and thickness. With such information it is then possible to reliably identify and parallelize rock sequences of similar formation in other, locally more distant outcrops . Due to the unique exposure and its good documentation, the layer sequence visible in the upper part of the quarry with the two marl horizons is also referred to as the type locality of the Arzberg Formation . This can be found in a similar training throughout the Franconian Jura from Nördlinger Ries to Regensburg and Franconian Switzerland .
Breakthrough mountain
Major river shifts in recent geological history have resulted in the Arzberg being surrounded by valleys. They completely separate it from the surrounding Alb plateau. In the south and east lies the Altmühltal , through which the original Danube flowed until around 70,000 years ago . In the north lies the Ottmaringer dry valley, in which the Ludwig-Danube-Main Canal and today the Main-Danube Canal runs. The Sulz , which created this valley, broke through the rock bar between Ottmaringer and Altmühltal on the western edge of the Arzberg during the last Ice Age, creating the largest breakthrough mountain in Europe.
use
The quarry was used economically from 1938 to 1975. It was put into operation in 1938 after the city of Beilngries no longer renewed the contract with the operator, the Leibrecht company for the Beilngries quarry. In 1961, a tar plant was also built on the site. The limestone was processed here as tar gravel for road construction. In 1973 there were 20 workers each in the quarry and in road construction. In 1975 the quarry was closed.
The banky limestone of the lower to middle Malm is very hard and weather-resistant. That is why they were used as a building material in the past. Stratifications and fissures made it easier to excavate the rock. Today such limestones are mainly used in broken form as crushed stone and chippings for road and path construction, as concrete aggregate and for the production of quicklime products and limestone powders.
Access
The quarry is freely accessible all year round. A little below is a small parking lot. From here, after a 15-minute ascent, the viewpoint at the quarry can be reached on foot. The area can also be reached via signposted hiking trails from Kottingwörth, Beilngries or Töging .
The bottom and embankments of the quarry may not be entered due to the risk of falling rocks and falling.
Web links
- LfU: 100 most beautiful geotopes (accessed December 12, 2015)
- www.archaeologie-beilngries.de: Quarries: Quarrying Jurassic Limestone in Beilngries / Arzberg and Wiesenhofen (accessed on December 12, 2015)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Geotope: Leibrecht Quarry on Arzberg W von Töging (accessed December 12, 2015)
- ↑ LfU: press release (accessed December 12, 2015)
- ↑ www.kottingwoerth.de: The Leibrecht Quarry (accessed on December 12, 2015)
Coordinates: 49 ° 1 ′ 11.7 ″ N , 11 ° 32 ′ 19.5 ″ E