Geological Map of Germany 1 : 1 000 000 (GK1000)
The GK1000 reflects the amazing diversity in the subsurface of Germany. This is the result of processes ongoing for millions of years that have shaped our geological subsurface: sedimentation, mountain building, magmatic intrusions and volcanic eruptions, metamorphism, erosion and glaciation.
| The oldest rocks of Germany were formed in the Precambrian more than 542 million years ago. They are found in Bohemian, Bavarian and Upper Palatinate Forest, Erzgebirge (Ore mountains), Lusatian Mountains, Saxon Granulite Mountains, Münchberg Massif, Black Forest and parts of Odenwald and Spessart. The sedimentary rocks of these so-called crystalline regions were strongly metamorphosed and intruded by granitic plutonic rocks. |
| From Cambrian to Silurian (542-410 million years ago) shallow seas flooded the German area indicated today by shales and sandstones in Saxony and North-East Bavaria. |
| In the Devonian period (417-358 million years ago) these seas deepened to large basins in which sediments accumulated to thick beds. This is proved by the shales, sandstones and limestones in the Rhenish Slate Mountains, Hunsrück, Taunus and Harz Mountains as well as in the Thuringian-Franconian-Vogtland Slate Mountains. |
| During the subsequent Carboniferous (358-296 million years ago) the ocean basins filled with sandy, clayey and calcareous sediments. At the same time the Cambrian sedimentary rocks were gradually folded. Generally, these Variscan mountain belts strike from southwest to northeast such as the Rhenish Slate Mountains. At the end of this geologic period large parts of Germany were covered by jungle and swamps. Dead trees and other organic material accumulated in depressions and turned into coal pressed by the weight of overlying sediments, over millions of years, into coal, well-known from Ruhr area. |
| The following Permian period was marked by a warm, dry desert climate. The reddish desert sand deposits of the Rotliegend (mainly Cisuralium and Guadalupium, 296-258 million years ago) are often associated with volcanic rocks such as in the Saar-Nahe region. During the Zechstein (Lopingium, 258-251 million years ago) shallow seas transgressed repeatedly from the north. They gradually evaporated, leaving behind limestone, dolomite and salt, which are mined as rock salt and potash in Northern Germany and in the area of Hessen-Thuringia today. |
| Also in the subsequent Triassic period Germany consisted predominantly of mainland. Especially during the times of the Buntsandstein (mainly Early Triassic, 251 to 243 million years ago) and the Keuper (mainly Late Triassic, 235-200 million years ago), in rivers and lakes, sandstones and claystones were constituted. In the Muschelkalk (Middle Triassic) the area was flooded by the sea, leaving limestone and claystone in the German low mountain ranges. |
| In the Jurassic (200-142 million years ago) Germany was again covered by the sea. During this period thick layers of limestone, sandstone and claystone were deposited. Nowadays these sediments, together with the Triassic deposits, are building the escarpment landscape of the Swabian and Franconian Alb in southern Germany and the Weser- and Leine-Bergland in northern Germany. |
| In the north of Germany the trangressions continued until the Cretaceous (142 to 65 million years ago). In this time the well-known chalk of Rügen limestone and claystone were deposited. Near the coast sandstones accumulated, such as can be found in the Teutoburg Forest and Egge Mountains, Deister, the edge of the Harz Mountains and in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains and nearby Zittau. Today these deposits are often washed out and form bizarrely shaped rock formations. During the Cretaceous the formation of the Alps began in southern Europe. This geologically young mountain range is comparatively high and not as heavily eroded as older mountain ranges. The Alps are a typical fold mountain belt characterized amongst others by extensive rock bodies, torn off their natural rock formation, shifted and stacked up to nappes. |
| During the Paleogene and Neogene (65 to 2.6 million years ago) many active volcanoes existed in central and southern Germany. The volcanic rocks of the Vogelsberg Mountains, Knüll, Rhön Mountains, Habichtswald and Hoher Meissner in Hessen, in Lusitz and in Northern Bavaria, in the Westerwald and the Rhenish Seven Hills, the Kaiserstuhl in Breisgau and the Hohentwiel in Swabia testify this, as well as the crater of the Eifel lakes (maars), whose origin lasted to the Quaternary. |
| Mostly in the Miocene, Paleogene and Neogene the lignite of the Lower Rhine, East German, Lusatian and Helmstedter mining districts was formed. At the same time the Rhine Valley subsided and was filled with sediments, whereas the debris from the rising Alps was deposited as molasse in the Alpine foreland. In the Middle Miocene (about 14.6 million years ago) nearby Nördlingen a meteorite struck and altered the rocks and landscape of the area. Even today, the Nördlinger Ries crater with a diameter of about 23 kilometers gives evidence of this massive impact. |
| The most recent and still ongoing geological period, the Quaternary, began ca. 2.6 million years ago. In the Pleistocene, until only about 10,000 years ago, Germany was formed by glaciers and glaciogenic landforms, such as terminal moraines, ground moraines and glacial valleys. In Northern Germany, the glaciers from Scandinavia stretched across the Baltic Sea as far as the low mountain ranges in the south. The main glaciations in the North German Plain but also in the Alps are named after rivers, indicating the marginal position of the respective ice shield. |
| At the same time glaciers stretched from the Alps into the Alpine foreland. The main glaciations in the Alpine region are named Günz, Mindel, Riss and Würm complex. The glaciations are easily trackable by the marginal position of the ice shield on the map. |
| The GK1000 differentiate deposits of the Quaternary also on their genesis: Particularly at the North Sea coast sediments occur which have been formed by marine processes. |
| The North German Plain is dominated by large moorlands. Bogs and fens are closely associated. |
| In wide river valleys fluvial sediments are differentiated according to their origin during the various interglacial and glacial periods. |
| Last but not least in Northern Germany, large loess occurrences accumulated due to deposition by air (wind). |
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