AGE DETERMINATIONS OF PALYNOLOGICAL ASSEMBLAGES FROM LOWER TERTIARY OF THE EISENBERG BASIN (NORTHERN PALATINAT, GERMANY)
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Abstract:
The Eisenberg Basin is situated in the southwestern part of the Mainz Basin and is part of the western shoulder of the Rhinegraben. The Tertiary sediments there are not comparable to the typic sequences of the Mainz Basin and because of the lack of fossils, the age of the layers in the Eisenberg Basin has been under discussion for long time. The palynostratigraphic investigation of samples from drilling core "Lautersheim 1" and from an outcrop northwest of Lautersheim (sandpit "Friedrich") indicates, according to palynological associations, three different time-spans. The lowest part of drill Lautersheim 1 belongs to the Middle Eocene (SPP-zone 15 or 16 after the zonation of Krutzsch 1966, 1970, 1992, which was established in the eastern part of Germany). Some layers of the middle section of the drill (Ebertsheim Formation below the Eisenberg Marine Sand = Eisenberger Meeressand) can be placed in the Lower Oligocene (Latdorfian stage; SPP-zone 19). This part is subdivided in two divisions, the lower part with numerous Eocene microfloristic elements and the upper part with only a few of these elements. This upper part of the Lower Oligocene correlates with the pollen-bearing horizon of the sandpit "Friedrich". The upper section of drill Lautersheim 1 (uppermost part of the Intermedium Layers = Zwischenschichten and basal part of the Freshwater Beds = SuBwasserschichten) yields pollen-spectra comparable with the "Marxheim pollen assemblage" (Marxheimer Pollenbild) or SPP-zone 20 F/G and therefore belongs to the lower Upper Oligocene (early Chattian stage).
