Abstract
The Permo-Carboniferous Saar-Nahe Basin in south-west Germany and north-east France formed at the boundary between the Rhenohercynian and Saxothuringian zones within the Variscan orogen, where non-marine sediments were deposited in a narrow, structurally controlled basin. The basin has an asymmetrical geometry perpendicular to the South Hunsruck Fault. However, there is a lack of growth of the sediment pile into the fault, and isopach maps show the depocentre always located adjacent to the South Hunsruck Fault, but migrating towards the north-east with time. This pattern is typical of a strike-slip basin, indicating that the South Hunsruck Fault was a dextral strike-slip fault during sedimentation. Tectonic subsidence curves indicate that, during the Middle Devonian to Early Carboniferous, the basin subsided due to thermal relaxation of the lithosphere. A change to very rapid subsidence at the start of the Westphalian continued until late in the Autunian. This was due to mechanical subsidence associated with strike-slip movement on the South Hunsruck Fault. Towards the end of subsidence in the Saar-Nahe Basin, the Grenzlager volcanics introduced a thermal pulse into the crust, leading to thermal cooling and relaxation of the lithosphere.
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