Abstract
Abstract. Since Late Pliocene / Early Pleistocene, the River Rhine, as one of the largest European rivers, has acted as the only drainage system that connected the Alps with Northern Europe, especially the North Sea. Along its course from the Alps to the English Channel the river passes several geomorphological and geological units, of which the Upper Rhine Graben acts as the major sediment trap. Whereas the potential of sediment preservation of the alpine foreland basins is low due to the high dynamics of the system, and the area of deposition close to the North Sea was significantly affected several times by Pleistocene sea level changes, the ongoing subsidence of the Upper Rhine Graben offers a unique potential for a continuous sediment accumulation and preservation.
Highlights
Tab. 1: Lithostratigraphic units as introduced by the three Geological Surveys working on the Heidelberg Basin
Investigations in the Heidelberg Basin project must preliminary focus on the establishment of a reference profile of the region north of the Alps, including petrographic, sequence stratigraphic, biostratigraphic, and magnetostratigraphic approaches, complemented by geochronological and geophysical data
Likewise interesting results are expected for the Heidelberg Basin Drilling Project in the future. This special issue on the Heidelberg Basin Drilling Project is published at an early stage of a just-starting joint research project that comprises aspects from many geoscientific disciplines
Summary
Since Late Pliocene / Early Pleistocene, the River Rhine, as one of the largest European rivers, has acted as the only drainage system that connected the Alps with Northern Europe, especially the North Sea. Two 300 m deep, cored boreholes in the city of Ludwigshafen – finished in 2002 and 2006 – represent the western margin of the basin These boreholes were carried out within the framework of groundwater exploration and left to the Geological Survey of RheinlandPfalz. The 350 m deep, cored borehole close to the village of Viernheim should reveal information about the central basin facies This borehole was carried out and sponsored by the Geological Survey of Hessen and finished in summer 2006. The last of the cored boreholes, the borehole Heidelberg UniNord, is located above the depocentre of the basin, on the eastern margin of the Rhine Graben Tab. 1: Lithostratigraphic units as introduced by the three Geological Surveys working on the Heidelberg Basin
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