Hans-Georg Herbig

The Carboniferous Jerada Synclinorium is one of the Variscan massifs of the Eastern Moroccan Meseta. A mostly Visean basin fill megacycle (Herbig et al. 2006) is unconformably overlain by a paralic Namurian–Westphalian C succession. The basin fill sequence starts with rhyolithic, andesitic and dacitic volcanosedimentary rocks (Oued Defla Formation). They are bound to roughly W-E trending, syndepositional active fault systems and either formed a submarine palaeorelief and/or intruded onto an inclined basin floor. Overlying bedded cherts and intercalated pyroclastics (Cafcaf Formation) started to level the relief. The Oued El Koriche Formation on top is a toe-of-slope deposit. It contains up to hectameter sized limestone olistolites at the southern flank of the Jerada synclinorium, indicating reworking of a southern carbonate platform at an active fault system. Water depth increased towards the N-NE, since at the northern flank only calciturbiditic fines occur. Goniatitebearing, predo...

New investigations of the Cambrian in the Franconian Forest region lead to a revision of the lithostratigraphic succession into seven units: Rauschbach Unit, Tiefenbach Formation, Tannenknock Formation (with Galgenberg and Wildenstein members), Triebenreuth Formation, Lippertsgrun Formation and Berglesh of Formation, with partly revised stratigraphical ranges and lithological characteristics. The succession indicates a fairly complete succession from Cambrian Series 2 (late early Cambrian) through the end of the Miaolingian, with gaps being a result of incomplete exposure and structural complexity rather than distinct hiatuses. New finds expand the known fossil record and provide additional data for reconstructing biogeographical relationships and depositional environments. These features indicate shallow marine conditions throughout the Cambrian with characteristics typical for West Gondwanan shelf areas. In particular, strong similarities to the Moroccan Atlas regions are indicated. Additional information on volcanic activity from middle Cambrian through Tremadocian times provides clues for crustal extension that affected the depositional setting in this region. Stratigraphy, depositional environments and facies distribution all suggest reinterpretation of earlier geotectonical models used to interpret the history of the Franconian Forest area in the Saxothuringian Belt

The Borkewehr section near Balve at the southeastern end of the Remscheid-Altena Anticline is currently the best and most complete Devonian/Carboniferous Boundary (DCB) succession of the Rhenish Massif, Germany. Based on a multidisciplinary approach, focusing on refined conodont and ammonoid biostratigraphy, microfacies analyses, sequence stratigraphy, carbon isotopes (Corg and Ccarb), trace element geochemistry, including REE data, and cyclostratigraphy, the section is proposed as a candidate for the new basal Carboniferous GSSP. The succession represents a pelagic “seamount” setting. It spans the upper Famennian to lower Viséan, with a condensed development of most Rhenish lithostratigraphic units and sedimentary sequences. It is the type-section of the oxic and strongly cyclic, fossiliferous Wocklum Limestone and of important uppermost Famennian and basal Carboniferous index species. The First Appearance Datum (FAD) of Protognathodus kockeli s.str., in a phylogenetic succession f...

Late Viséan brachiopods from the eastern Tafilalt (Morocco), and more precisely from the area comprised between the Jebel Begaa to the southwest, and Gara El Itima to the northeast (close to the Algerian border), are described systematically for the first time. Despite the limited material available, 18 species belonging to 17 genera have been recognized within the limestone beds of the Merdani and Zrigat formations, in which the productides (Productidina) and spiriferides are the most diverse. Representatives of the subfamily Gigantoproductidinae, which are close, if not conspecific, to those present in contemporaneous rocks of the nearby Béchar Basin (Algeria), occur in the late Viséan Zrigat Formation. Additional research based on more abundant material is necessary to investigate thoroughly the relationships existing between the Béchar Basin and the Tafilalt, which may have been part of the former during the Carboniferous. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Carboniferous timescale in the Stratigraphic Table of Germany 2016 (STD 2016) relies on slightly modified composite ages already used in the Stratigraphic Table of Germany 2002 (STD 2002). They differ from the Geological Time Scale 2012 (GTS 2012). Besides the international stages, the western European Mississippian regional stages are shown. The traditional German subdivision of the Kulm was discarded. Mississippian (lower Carboniferous) sedimentary successions are widespread in the mountainous regions and hills in the central part of Germany (Rhenish Mountains, Harz, Thuringian Forest, Franconian Forest and adjoining regions of Saxony). They are also widespread in the subsurface of Northern Germany. Paralic Pennsylvanian (upper Carboniferous) successions crop out in the Subvariscan Basin between Aachen and Osnabruck, and continue into the subsurface of Northern Germany. Intramontane successions, with few exceptions starting in the Pennsylvanian, occur in several, in part extended basins in southwestern and central Germany. They are known from outcrop and subsurface. The diversified facies of the Carboniferous in Germany is controlled by the northwestern progradation of the Variscan Orogeny and its finalisation during the late Westphalian. During the Mississippian, megafacies realms include deeper water basinal sediments and flysch deposits, and laterally adjoining shallow-water platform carbonates (Kulm facies and Carboniferous Limestone facies, respectively). Locally starting in the later Mississippian (upper Visean), paralic and purely continental intramontane molasse deposits prevail during the Pennsylvanian. The traditional lithostratigraphic terms of the Mississippian regional standard profiles of Aachen and the western and northern Rhenish Mountains (Velbert, Sauerland) were completely substituted by new formations. Lithostratigraphic terms of the northeastern and eastern Rhenish Mountains (Kellerwald, Lahn-Dill area) were completely revised, as provenance analyses of detrital zircons enabled the differentiation of Rhenohercynian and Armorican nappes. Also the Mississippian of the Thuringisch-Frankisches Schiefergebirge and the Frankenwald (Franconian Forest) are better differentiated; formations were introduced for most lithostratigraphic units. Minor modifications concern the Namurian of the Subvariscan Basin at the northwestern border of the Rhenish Mountains and the intramontane Pennsylvanian successions of several basins in central Germany

The Asbian succession of northwestem Ireland is characterised by northward retrogradation of deltaic systems and the diachronaus advance of pure carbonate facies due to a gradual sea level rise. Rugose corals are abundant in the Bricklieve Mountain Formation, and in its northem equivalents, the Glencar and Darty formations. However, only Siphonodendran constructs distinctive biostrome-dominated horizons, which can be traced across more than 40 kilometres through Cty. Sligo in a transect more or less perpendicular to the ...

Allochthonous Devonian limestone slide blocks are common in the Visléan to probably basal Namurian Retamares Member (lower Almogia Formation) of the Malaguides. The only slide block known from the coastal Palaeozoic between Fuengirola and Estepona is described from the Arroyo de la Cruz W of Mar-bella. This block is approximately 50 m in diameter and 11 m thick. Four stages of interna1 deformation prove its allochthonous nature. Deformation features and tectonic setting indicate a S to SE derivation. The block is of late Frasnian to early Famennian age. In terms of conodont zonation, it represents the Up-per gigas Zone and the Middle Palmatolepis triangu-laris to Lower rhomboidea Zones, with the Uppermost gigas and Lower Pa. triangularis Zones missing. Pe-lagic mudstones predominate in rocks of the Upper gigas Zone, whereas fine-grained limestone turbidi-tes, derived from lower slope environments or from intrabasinal rises, piredominate above the hiatus. Car-bonate microfacies as we...

The crustacean coproliteFavreina priman. sp. and its internal structure are described from an upper Frasnian–lowermost Famennian limestone clast of moderately deep water origin, which derived from an Upper Carboniferous conglomerate of the Rif Mountains, northern Morocco. The fecal pellets were produced by early decapods that may be related to the Palaeopalaemonidae. Foraminifers of the stratigraphic marker genusEonodosariaare associated with the coprolite. This is the third report of Paleozoic crustacean coprolites and the first occurrence prior to the Lower Permian.