Saxothuringian Zone

Because rocks of Hercynian age are in most places covered by younger strata, the zone is not everywhere visible at the surface.

The Saxothuringian Zone is in some places transected by Permo-Triassic grabens and intramontane basins filled with Rotliegend sediments and older deposits.

The Eger Graben in the northwest of the Czech Republic and the Saar-Nahe Basin in western Germany are examples of such structures.

The sedimentary sequence is assumed to be continuous from the Ediacaran to the Visean (330 million years ago).

They consisted originally of a sequence of deep-marine (flysch) sediments of Ordovician to Devonian age (480-360 million years old) and early Paleozoic mid-oceanic ridge basalts.

Most important structures and zones of the Hercynian orogeny in Europe. [ 1 ]