Döhlen Basin

The Karsdorf fault forms the geological boundary with the Eastern Ore Mountains to the south.

The formation and sedimentation of the basin lasted from Upper Carboniferous to the Lower Permian and were tectonically affected by the adjacent NW-SE trending fault zone (the Elbe Valley zone).

About half of the 800-metre-thick basin filling is made of pyroclastic rock.

Of economic importance were the coal seams of the Döhlen formation, whose occurrence has been known since the 16th century and particularly in the late 19th and early 20th century was the reason for an intensive mining industry.

From 1968, mining activity became restricted to the extraction of uranium-bearing coal on the northwest edge of the Döhlen Basin by SDAG Wismut.