Geological overview map of Lower Saxony 1: 500 000 (WMS Service)

Geological overview map 1: 500 000 gives a nationwide overview of the geological structure of Lower Saxony. In addition, information on the expansion of various icings, the coastline of the North Sea in the Quaternary and tectonic structures are given as line information. The southern Lower Saxony mountain country is built by the rocks of the Paleozoic and Mesozoic rocks. In the Harz Mountains and at Osnabrück, the Paleozoic basic mountains are revealed. The oldest rock is the presumably from the pre-kambrium Eckergneis. Over a layer gap follow the sediments of a Paleozoic sea basin. In the Silur, black clay slate, Devon sandstone, badger slate, sill and reef limestone were sold; in the Upper Devon and subcarbon, the Harzer Grauwacken were poured. Basaltic lavenders, today’s Diabase, stepped out on the seabed. In connection with this, gravel slate and iron ores were created. The entire sequence of strata was unfolded during varistic mountain formation in the upper carbon; finally, magmatic melts rose, which are now exposed in the Harzburg Gabbro, in Brocken- and Oker-Granite. In the red lying, the ablation rubble gathered in sinks of the mountains. The Zechstein Sea flooded an already leveled terrain and covered it with powerful consequences of lime, plaster or anhydrite and salt. In the Mesozoic, the shallow, temporarily dripping basin was filled with the sediments of the Triassic (bunt sandstone, mussel limestone and keuper), in the Jurassic and in the Cretaceous period, the basin was again flooded by the sea. The mesozoic layer stack broke in a time of tectonic unrest (upper juta to chalk) of profound disturbances. On them, the plastically reacting Zechstein salt rose up. The result is the saxon fracture of the top mountain range. In the tertiary, the sea again flooded the ground and deposited sand and clay, while inland lignite temporarily formed. Finally, the sea retreated to today’s North Sea area. The quaternary is characterised by a multiple change of cold and warm times. In the middle Pleistocene, large parts of Lower Saxony were glaciated during the Elster and Saale cold periods; the ice left ground moraines (slide gel) and meltwater deposits (kibbles, sand and clay). In the warm periods (interglacials) and in the post-ice period (Holocene), peat, mudden and marl were formed. Parts of the coastal area were flooded and covered by marine, wattage and brackish water deposits.