Sülstorf layers

system	series	step	≈ age ( mya )
higher	higher	higher	younger
Paleogene	Oligocene	Chattium	23.03 ⬍ 28.1
	Oligocene	Rupelium	28.1 ⬍ 33.9
	Eocene	Priobonium	33.9 ⬍ 38
		Bartonium	38 ⬍ 41.3
		lutetium	41.3 ⬍ 47.8
		Ypresium	47.8 ⬍ 56
	Paleocene	Thanetium	56 ⬍ 59.2
		Seelandium	59.2 ⬍ 61.6
		Danium	61.6 ⬍ 66
deeper	deeper	deeper	older

“Sternberger cake”, a piece of rock formed by the transport through ice and water of the proximal tempestite facies of the Sülstorf layers

The Sülstorf layers are a sequence of shallow marine, partly very fossil rich siliciclastic late Lower Tertiary of Northern Germany . Based on their fossil content, they are dated to the late Oligocene (upper Eochattian of the North German Tertiary Basin, Chattian of the international time scale ) and in northern Germany introduce the shallow water facies of the Neogene, which followed the deep-sea sedimentation of the Rupelian (early Oligocene).

Facies and distribution

The originally gray, but often yellowish to brownish sediments of the Sülstorf strata due to limonization are widespread underground from southeastern Schleswig-Holstein and northeastern Lower Saxony to about the line Wismar - Neubrandenburg . They are missing northeast of this line due to erosion. The Sülstorf layers are usually as silt or fine sand stones formed, wherein the sand fraction in the sequence for hanging wall increases, and in the distribution area to the north and east. The silty facies are traditionally referred to as Malliss sandstone banks , the fine sandy facies as Sternberg rocks . The sediment of the fine sandy facies is locally characterized by a very high proportion of macrofossil. In these areas, the material is also intensively carbonated ( calcite and siderite ) and thus strongly consolidated.

The fauna of the Sülstorf strata (see below ) suggests that they were deposited in a relatively shallow, warm epicontinental sea under fully marine conditions. The very fossil-rich layers of the fine sandy facies are interpreted as proximal tempestites (storm deposits) that were deposited in particularly shallow areas of this sea. A connection with the rise of salt structures in the subsurface of the sea basin is assumed, among other things because no conspicuous fossil accumulations at the level of the Sülstorf layers are known from drilling outside of the Mecklenburg salt structures known today and because the post-oligocene further bulged overburden of these salt structures as the area of origin of the so-called Sternberger cake would be predestined.

Sternberger cake

The Heimatmuseum Sternberg houses an extensive collection of specimens of the "Sternberger Cake"

Light brown to deep dark brown, strongly cemented and fossil-rich rock of the fine sandy facies of the Sülstorf strata is found in the form of edged rubble as so-called close-up debris in glacifluvial deposits of the Weichselian glacial period . These pebbles, usually the size of a walnut or a child's head, are generally known as Sternberger cakes and are popular with mineral and fossil collectors. They are particularly common in central Mecklenburg, but are sometimes also found in the Leipzig area. Its main distribution area in eastern northern Germany adjoins and slightly overlaps with the main distribution area of a similar type of close-up bedload, the Holstein rock , to the east .

One of the largest specimens of Sternberg cake, which with dimensions of 110 × 80 × 25 cm can already be addressed as a boulder , is in the Sternberg local history museum.

Fossil content

Knowledge of the macrofauna of the Sülstorf strata mainly comes from the mass occurrences in the Sternberger cake . By far the most common are the chalky shells and shells of molluscs, especially mussels (Pelecypoda), snails (Gastropoda), and scaphopods . Remains of stony corals (Scleractinia), echinoderms (Echinodermata), crustaceans (Crustacea) and vertebrates (Vertebrata), mainly otoliths and vertebrae of bony fish (Osteichthyes) as well as shark and ray teeth are much rarer. In total, the number of species identified in the Sternberg cake is close to 600. It is therefore the most species-rich of the reclaimed tertiary rocks in the northern German Quaternary.

The microfossils contained therein, especially the benthic foraminifera, are of particular importance for the relative age classification and the internal stratigraphic structure of the Sülstorf layers : The lower Sülstorf layers extend over the Asterigerinoides zone, which marks and through the lower Eochattium or Chatt A. a mass occurrence of the foraminifera species Asterigerinoides guerichi is marked. The upper Sülstorf layers, to which the Sternberger cake is mainly assigned, are located in the Palmula zone, which is named after the foraminifera species Palmula oblonga .

Web links

Literature about Sülstorf layers in the state bibliography MV
Stefan Polkowsky: Insight into the fauna and flora of the Upper Oligocene Sternberg rock of Mecklenburg. Article on Steinkern.de from September 24, 2010 with many high-quality images of specimens of the Sternberg cake and the fossils that have been handed down in it.
M. Hesemann: SEM image of a specimen of Palmula oblonga from the Sternberg cake. Foraminifera.eu Project Database

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b W. v. Bülow: Sülstorf layers (data record no .: 14). In: LithoLex. BGR Hanover. Last changed on September 1, 2006, accessed August 14, 2015.

↑ Peter Suhr: Sternberger rock and salt tectonics. 79th Meeting of the Working Group of North German Geologists, 26. – 29. May 2015 in Güstrow. Series of publications by the State Office for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Geology Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Issue 1/2015, pp. 156–158 ( PDF )

↑ ^a ^b Stefan Polkowsky: Crabs and crabs from northern German piles . Tassados, Vol. 2. Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2015, ISBN 978-3-7386-6863-6 , p. 76 ff.

↑ Complete paragraph, unless otherwise noted

Karl Gripp: geological history of Schleswig-Holstein. Wachholz Verlag, Neumünster 1964.
Kurt Hucke : Introduction to bed load research. Nederlandse Geologische Vereniging, Oldenzaal, 1967.
Werner Schulz: Geological guide for the north German bed load collector. cw Verlagsgruppe, Schwerin 2003, ISBN 3-933781-31-0 .

↑ K. Obst, G.-B. Reinicke, S. Richter, R. Seemann (Ed.): Treasure chambers of nature - natural history collections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Geological service in the State Office for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Geology Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Güstrow 2009, ISBN 978-3-00-025888-6 , pp. 90–94.

[litholex-1] W. v. Bülow: Sülstorf layers (data record no .: 14). In: LithoLex. BGR Hanover. Last changed on September 1, 2006, accessed August 14, 2015.

[2] Peter Suhr: Sternberger rock and salt tectonics. 79th Meeting of the Working Group of North German Geologists, 26. – 29. May 2015 in Güstrow. Series of publications by the State Office for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Geology Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Issue 1/2015, pp. 156–158 ( PDF )