Day excursion Mainzer Becken

Head: PD Dr. Olaf Lenz

Time and location: The event takes place annually in June / July. The meeting point for the excursion is at the Lichtwiese at TU Darmstadt. From there the bus takes you to the first station.

Application: Interested parties must register in advance for the day excursion via TUCaN. There is a limited number of participants.

Summary

The Mainz Basin was a 50m deep bay, which existed around 38 to 12 Ma ago and connected the former North Sea with the Paratethys. In terms of landscape and climatic conditions, tropical to subtropical conditions prevailed at this time. The annual temperature was 18 ° C and thus much higher than today, comparable to today's Caribbean. Finds of fossil living beings show that the Mainz Basin underwent a constant change in salt concentration during its development and thus alternated between a normal sea and a brackish sea. Due to the lowering of the Upper Rhine Rift, there was also increased volcanic activity.

The “Mainz Basin” excursion runs through several stations. Through the course of the excursions, the students experience the development of the basin with its special geological properties on site. In addition to lectures at the respective stations, the students should record a geological profile in the lime kiln, which is part of the performance assessment. In addition, found fossils must be determined and used in order to be able to prove the marine conditions on the basis of these fossils. At further stations, the students get an insight into how an interpretation and reconstruction of the paleoenvironment is created on the basis of sediments and fossils. During the excursion, the students are also given the opportunity to collect fossils and calcite crystals from the quarries themselves.

The day excursion “Mainz Basin” is counted as part of the module “Field exercises III”.

Proof of achievement: Report including geological profile