[5] The Egersund Basin has abundant fresh porphyritic nephelinite lavas and dykes of lower Jurassic age, with a composition nearly identical to those found in the clay pits.

[8] With both, the palynological and sedimentological study of all available exposures and cores from the Lower–Middle Jurassic shows that the Hasle Formation (Lower–Middle Pliensbachian) is covered by a succession referable to both the Levka and Sorthat beds, which are composed mostly by bioturbated sands, heteroliths and clays along with abundant coal veins, and contain relatively diverse brackish to marine dinoflagellate assemblages that are indicative of upper Pliensbachian, Toarcian and possibly lower Aalenian strata.

[9] Nearly 40 m thick, the upper section of the formation is composed mostly by a series of cross-bedded, cross-laminated, wave-rippled and bioturbated sand and heteroliths with sporadic syneresis cracks, pyrite nodules, the ichnofossils Planolites isp.

[1] This upper part has a stratum more characteristic of nearshore environments with abundant lagoons, coastal lakes and fluvial channels, with the clean sand at the top probably representing a marine shoreface.

[1] The Korsodde section, 93 m thick, is composed mostly of coarse-grained sands with cross-bedding and parallel lamination, being mostly black due to an abundant organic debris.

[1] The uppermost part of the formation in the Korsodde section consists of fine-grained sands of yellowish to brown color with cross-stratification and parallel lamination, along with sandstones with thin bioturbated and wave-rippled heterolithic beds.

There are synaeresis cracks noted at 8.15–8.75 m. 6.9–9.9 m Tidal flat deposits in an estuary Unit G A prominent erosional surface at the start, composed of yellow medium- to fine-grained cross-laminated sandstones with muscovite.

[4][7][8][12] Beyond the deposits on the west and south coast of Bornholm, the formation is present in the Stina-1 well, which belongs to the Rønne Graben (a large offshore pull-apart basin that also includes the westernmost fringe of the island of Bornholm), where both the Sorthat and the Bagå Formation are deposited on the hanging wall fault block close to the main eastern bounding fault of this graben along the west coast of the island.

This suggests Pliensbachian–Toarcian rivers eroded the Bornholm High, eliminating all of the Carboniferous layers and leaving only older Palaeozoic strata, as proven by the granite of the younger Bagå Formation.

The Bifrons to Levesquei zone in the coeval units at the east and west of Prignitz, a sandy coastal-deltaic succession, was replaced by laminated shales with pelagic marine fauna, reflected in the shoreline shifts to the northeast, which contributed to retrogradational stratal pattern architectures.

[17] The Rǿnne Graben shows seismic lines with onlapping patterns that have been correlated to these Lower Toarcian marine shoreface deposits with intense bioturbation.

[13] The depositional environments include the following: Inertinite has been recovered from the coal-bearing levels of the formation, where the palynology shows that the mire vegetation may have been dominated by gymnosperms and also contained ferns characterised by the genera Dicksonia or Coniopteris and the family Osmundaceae.

[23] In the section at Korsodde that includes the Toarcian oceanic anoxic event, thermophilic plant taxa imply that the climate was relatively dry, and presence of micro- and macroscopic charcoal indicates a spike of abundance and increase of the wildfire activity.

[24] Most of the coal seams recovered from the formation come from Levka 1 and the Korsodde section, and are derived in most cases from a densely vegetated, anoxic swamp, which was probably rheotrophic and rich in nutrients.

[25] The majority of the samples were immature, low-rank coals with generally very high content of humified organic matter, which indicates prevailing anoxic and fully saturated conditions during peat formation, with occasional inundations by freshwater that favoured humification of the plant tissues and also may have increased the gelification processes, raising the pH.

[25] Baltisphaeridium[18] Very rare and limited to the middle layers An algal acritarch, probably related to freshwater red algae, similar to extant Florideophyceae (for example, Hildenbrandia) or Batrachospermales (Batrachospermum) and Thoreales.

The presence of N. gracilis, N. senex and N. triceras, and common occurrence of Botryococcus is interpreted as indicating a lagoon succession overlying a transgressive surface and signals a rise in relative sea level.

[34] The dominance of Pagiophyllum and its related pollen Corollina torosus indicate high temperature and aridity with seasonal wildfires (though some sections show a low coal ratio and are derived from slightly more humid environments), with rare occurrences of Brachyphyllum and one Cyparissidium.

Based on analogies with morphologically similar extant Equisetum species, it is interpreted to represent a plant of consistently moist habitats, such as marshes, lake margins or forest understorey, normally developing dense thickets.

Specimens assigned to this morphothype have been found in the Middle Jurassic flora of Yorkshire, associated with Todites miospores, and were originally described as Asplenites cladophleboides.

Lycopodiacidites[4][7][8][12] Very rare and in concrete samples in Levka-1 & Sorthat beds; abundant but limited to lower layers in Korsodde Spores Affinities with the Ophioglossaceae in the Filicales.

It was recently found to come from Eucommiitheca, a member of the enigmatic Erdtmanithecales, reinterpreted as an unusual gymnosperm grain with a single distal colpus flanked by two subsidiary lateral colps.

It is among the most abundant flora recovered on the upper section of the coeval Rya Formation, and was found to be similar to the pollen of the extant Encephalartos laevifolius.

The structure of the exine of Clavatipollenites hughesii from Jurassic deposits is fundamentally different from that of Cretaceous grains referred to the same species, confirming observations made previously on the basis of analysis under the light microscope and suggesting a possible derivation from cycadalean rather than angiospermous plants.

[63] Arenicolites[18] Dwelling traces Domichnia Marine, brackish or freshwater unbranched U-shaped burrows having a subvertical orientation, with or without lining and passive fill.

A more recent study has found that Scoloplos armiger and Heteromastus filiformis, occurring in the German Wadden Sea in the lower parts of tidal flats, make burrows that are homonymous with numerous trace fossils of the ichnogenus.

Most show only protrusive spreit, like the local ones, produced under predominantly erosive conditions where the organism was constantly burrowing deeper into the substrate as sediment was eroded from the top.

Most Diplocraterion show only protrusive spreiten, like the local ones produced under predominantly erosive conditions where the organism was constantly burrowing deeper into the substrate as sediment was eroded from the top.

Vertical or oblique complex trace fossil composed of a bunch of spindle-shaped structures and associated tubes, typical of a restricted environment (?estuarine/lagoonal).

Interpreted as dwelling structures of vermiform animals; specifically, the domichnion of a suspension-feeding worm or phoronidan, with certain Skolithos representing entrance shafts to more complicated burrows.