Structural balancing at the southern border of the North East German basin: results and challenges

Abstract

Different types of salt-related structures and more or less strongly folded basement uplifts formed on the complex southern border of the North German Basin (NGB). The data resolution in this region offers excellent possibilities to study the relations of major basement thrusts with shortening in the sedimentary cover. Being still largely covered by Triassic and Jurassic sediments, the basement uplift in the south of the Lower Saxony basin (LSB) looks more subdued than its exposed eastern counterparts (Harz, Flechtingen High), but its size and vertical offset are apparently of the same order. In the Subhercynian basin and in the Northeast German Basin (NEGB) the Zechstein salt decouples the structures in the sedimentary cover from basement faults. In contrast, there is no clear evidence for regional detachments in the LSB. Cover deformation is more closely tied to underlying basement structures which are sometimes obscured by inversion (Kockel 2002). To test the hypothesis that the amount of shortening in parts of the NGB east and west of the Gifhorn fault array is roughly similar, we have investigated in detail the thin-skinned and thick-skinned deformation from the southern border of NEGB up to the complex inverted structures in the northern foreland of the Thuringian forest.