What is the status for sediment-transport reconstructions of the Lower Triassic intracontinental Buntsandstein Group and equivalents? Where and why was sediment trapped? Can central Europe be compared to equivalents in the interconnected North Sea? We answer these questions with a multimethodological approach. Sedimentation took place during arid climate in a sag basin of the Central European Basin in Pangea. Fluvial palaeotransport directions indicate detritus transported into a large central endorheic playa lake from the Massif Central in the west and the Bohemian Massif in the east. Aeolian transport mainly was from the south, causing sediment mixing between different fluvial catchments as indicated by zircon grain-size and U-Pb-age correlations, and zircon grains from the Variscan belt and the Bohemian Massif in Denmark. They indicate temporary desiccation of the playa lake. Alongshore lacustrine transport modified the detrital composition further. Also several submerged topographic barriers influenced sediment routes. In Denmark, heavy-mineral, zircon, and seismic data demonstrate that the Ringkøbing-Fyn High prevented sediment supply from the Fennoscandian Shield. In the central basin, transport around the Eichsfeld-Altmark Swell caused seemingly contradicting provenance results from petrography, cathodoluminescence of quartz, and zircon data due to sorting processes. Further north in the central North Sea, seismic and petrophysical data indicate that sediment traps were more local due to mobilisation of underlying Zechstein-Group salt, creating Triassic minibasins. Zircon and whole-rock geochemical data are in progress to reveal if the sources were local or if the area rather was comparable with the more regional sediment-transport systems in continental Europe.

The boundary between the Saxo-Thuringian and Rheno-Hercynian zones represent a Gondwana-Laurussia transform plate boundary in the Bohemian Massif. To the west of the Bohemian Massif, Permo-Mesozoic sedimentary rocks cover the transform plate boundary, which limits our understanding of its spatial and temporal development. We reinterpret Dekorp-2S and 4N and create a composite profile in between, perpendicular to the transform plate boundary. Based on the seismic reflection facies, we define Southeastern, Central and Northwestern Saxo-Thuringian domains (SE, Central and NW domains). Magnetic field intensity and Bouguer gravity anomaly maps and their derivatives further strengthen our interpretation of the Saxo-Thuringian domains and their regional-scale deformation style.

The SE-domain show sub-horizontal and high-amplitude reflections in the southwest and medium-amplitude reflection in the northeast and it is correlated to the medium-grade metamorphosed areas of the Fichtelgebirge and northeastern Münchberg nappe. The Central-domain is characterized by low reflectivity in the upper and the middle crust and it is not developed in the southwest along the Dekorp-2S. The Central-domain is correlated to the early Carboniferous turbidites and the SE Schwarzburg anticline. The NW-domain show high-amplitude and dipping reflections occupying broader areas in the southwest. We interpret the lateral changes along the NW-domain resulting from the regional stress field rotation in the latest Variscan times and thrust reactivation of the former strike-slip shear zones developed along the transform plate boundary. Our results highlight noncylindrical nature of the Variscan lithostructures west of the Bohemian Massif and the regional scale spatiotemporal development of a fossil transform plate boundary.

The Elbe Zone serves as an example for the intricate architecture of the Central European Variscides. In the Elbtalschiefergebirge, remnants of a heterogeneously deformed and metamorphosed nappe complex are juxtaposed with the crystalline blocks of the Lausitz and the Erzgebirge. The preserved Paleozoic lithologies contain the record of the Variscan orogeny postdating marine sedimentation on a vast Peri-Gondwana shelf. However, the relationship between sedimentation, magmatism and Variscan tectonics remains contentious. Here, we present a tectonic model for the Elbtalschiefergebirge that is characterized by two consecutive burial-exhumation cycles. Late Devonian marine facies differentiation and bimodal magmatism marks the onset of the Variscan Orogeny. These sedimentary to volcanoclastic successions were then affected by low-grade regional metamorphism, followed by nappe stacking. The deposition of Early Carboniferous synorogenic marine sediments on top of the exhumed crustal pile marks the transition into the second cycle, which is characterized by renewed burial and subsequent heterogeneous dextral transpressional deformation of the Elbe Zone. Shearing at the northeastern boundary of the Elbtalschiefergebirge is accompanied by a prograde high-temperature metamorphic overprint, probably associated with the emplacement of the synkinematic Meissen granitoids. Shearing in the southwest resulted in the formation of the brittle-ductile to brittle Mid-Saxon Shear Zone, which is related to the final exhumation of the Erzgebirge complex into upper crustal levels. The end of the pervasive dextral strike-slip activity is marked by the intrusions of the undeformed Markersbach-Granite and Late Carboniferous rhyolite dykes as well as by the unconformable deposition of Permo-Carboniferous sediments of the Döhlen Basin.

The initial thickness of the rock salt deposits in the Southern Permian Basin (SPB) is one of the main factors influencing the complexity of the internal structure of diapirs. In general, it can be assumed that the greater the initial thickness of the rock salt layers in the vicinity of today's diapirs was, the greater the proportion of rock salt in the volume of the respective diapir. Especially initial salt thickness of the Zechstein Staßfurt Formation (z2Na) appears to shape salt dome development and their internal complexity. Numerous maps of primary thickness of the Zechstein in the SPB exist. However, these maps vary in Zechstein thicknesses by up to several hundred meters. This study reconciles previous mapping results with modern approaches to create an updated proposal for primary z2Na salt thickness. Challenges are that very few boreholes in the basin center show approximately preserved primary thicknesses due to an almost complete withdrawl of mobile salts into diapirs, which additionally, were often subject to deep-cutting erosion in the Mesozoic, too. This means that in some parts of the basin only vague indications of original thicknesses remain. Therefore, analysis of boreholes, seismic and structural maps, are accompanied by estimates of the syn-depositional basin subsidence, the palaeo-basin relief, sedimentation rates and uncertainties in Zechstein geochronology. Minimum and maximum conceivable basin subsidence was estimated and compared with results from mapping of the Zechstein thickness. This presentation focusses in particular on the uncertainties and challenges of mapping initial salt thickness of the Zechstein Staßfurt Formation.

Fold-and-thrust belts and foreland basin deformation are typically associated to orogenic systems along plate margins, where contraction and shortening is transferred to the foreland. In contrast the Late Cretaceous “hercynian” intraplate contraction affected large areas of the Central European lithosphere far away from the next adjacent plate margins. Shortening resulted in the inversion of basins and (half-)grabens, but also the formation of large basement-cored uplifts and crustal-scale thrusts occurred. Due to crustal scale thrusting and lithospheric folding foreland basins developed, which resemble structures typically known from foreland fold-and-thrust belts all over the world.

This contribution deals with the Gardelegen-Haldensleben Basement Thrust System in Central Germany. In this region two major basement thrusts formed and syntectonic sedimentary basins evolved in their northern foreland. Due to the existence of mechanically weak strata these foreland basins were deformed in parts by thin-skinned “fold-and-thrust belt style”. To unravel the evolution of thick-skinned and thin-skinned thrusts we used classical cross-section balancing methods of equal bed-length and areas, in parts supported by recently reprocessed seismic reflection data. Timing constraints and estimates of uplift and shortening were deviated from the correlation of boreholes, which penetrated the pre- and syntectonic strata.

Our results show that synchronously with thrusting wide areas in the foreland of the Gardelegen-Haldensleben Basement Thrust System were still affected by subsidence of the North German Basin, superimposed by foreland basin formation and successively growth and tilted Late Cretaceous strata. With the onset of Latest Cretaceous (Maastrichtian), uplift ceased and basin fill overlap earlier basement structures.