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Integrated stratigraphy and 40Ar/39Ar chronology of the early to middle Miocene Upper Freshwater Molasse in western Bavaria (Germany)

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Abstract

A detailed integrated stratigraphic study (biostratigraphy and magnetostratigraphy) was carried out on five sections from the western part of the Bavarian Upper Freshwater Molasse of the North Alpine Foreland Basin (NAFB), greatly improving the chronostratigraphy of these sediments. The sections belong to the lithostratigraphic units Limnische Untere Serie (UL) and Fluviatile Untere Serie (UF) and contain 19 (mostly new) small-mammal bearing levels, significantly refining the local biostratigraphy. Radiometric ages obtained from glass shards from tuff horizons are used together with the biostratigraphic information for constructing and confirming the magnetostratigraphic correlation of the studied sections to the Astronomical Tuned Time Scale (ANTS04; Lourens et al. in Geologic Time Scale 2004, Cambridge University Press, 2004). This correlation implies that the UL lithostratigraphic unit corresponds to the latest Ottnangian and the Early Karpatian, whereas the UF corresponds to the Karpatian and the Early Badenian. This indicates that the Brackish- to Freshwater Molasse transition already occurred during the late Ottnangian. The pre-Riesian hiatus occurred in the latest Karpatian and lower Early Badenian in Eastern Bavaria and Bohemia and in the Late Karpatian and earliest Badenian in Western Bavaria. The geochemical and Ar–Ar data of volcanic ashes suggest that highly evolved silicic magmas from a single volcano or volcanic center, characterized by a uniform Nd isotopic composition, erupted repetitively over the course of at least 1.6 Myr. Three phases of eruptive activity were identified at 16.1 ± 0.2 Ma (Zahling-2), 15.6 ± 0.4 Ma (Krumbad), and 14.5 ± 0.2 Ma (Heilsberg, Hegau). The correlation of the local biostratigraphic zonation to the ANTS04 enables further the characterization of both the Ottnangian–Karpatian and Karpatian–Badenian boundaries in the NAFB by small-mammal biostratigraphy. According to these results the Ottnangian–Karpatian boundary is contemporaneous with the first appearance datum of Megacricetodon bavaricus (in the size of the type population) and the first common occurrence of Keramidomys thaleri, whereas Ligerimys florancei, Melissiodon dominans and Prodeinotherium aff. bavaricum have been already disappeared during the late Ottnangian. The Karpatian–Badenian boundary is characterized by a significant size increase of the large Megacricetodon lineage and possibly a (re-)immigration of Prodeinotherium bavaricum.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Harald Schmidt (Tonwerk Ichenhausen), Wolfgang Neumann (Ziegelwerk Bellenberg), and Georg Bauer (Ziegelwerke Leipfinger-Bader, Puttenhausen) for working permissions and technical help in the clay pits. Special thanks to Gerhard Doppler (Bavarian Geological Survey), Bettina Reichenbacher (LMU Munich), and Jean-Pierre Berger (University Fribourg) for fruitful discussions about the geology and stratigraphy of the West-Molasse and helpful comments on the manuscript. This project was supported by DFG grants BO 1550/7-1, 2 and BO 1550/8.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department for Earth and Environmental Sciences, Section Geophysics, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Theresienstrasse 41, 80333, Munich, Germany

    Hayfaa Abdul Aziz & Valerian Bachtadse

  2. Department for Earth and Environmental Sciences, Section Palaeontology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Richard-Wagner-Str. 10, 80333, Munich, Germany

    Madelaine Böhme & Jerome Prieto

  3. Department for Earth and Environmental Sciences, Section Mineralogy, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Theresienstrasse 41, 80333, Munich, Germany

    Alexander Rocholl

  4. Department of Isotope Geochemistry, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1085, 1081 HV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Jan R. Wijbrans

  5. Schlagmann Baustoffe, Ziegeleistrasse 1, 84367, Zeilarn, Germany

    Albert Ulbig

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  1. Hayfaa Abdul Aziz
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  2. Madelaine Böhme
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  3. Alexander Rocholl
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  5. Jan R. Wijbrans
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  7. Albert Ulbig
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Correspondence to Madelaine Böhme.

Appendix

Appendix

See Appendix Table 4 and Fig. 16

Table 4 40Ar/39Ar plateau ages and 39Ar/37Ar-derived K/Ca ratios of rhyolitic bentonite-hosted glasses from Southern Germany
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Fig. 16
figure 16

Weighted mean plateau ages of total fusion and incremental heating experiments for bentonite-hosted rhyolitic glasses from Southern Germany. Plateau steps and their 1σ-error are shown. Total procedure blanks ranged from 1.2 × 10−3 to 3.8 × 10−3 V for mass 36, 1.0 × 10−3 to 3.2 × 10−3 V for mass 37, 0.2 × 10−4 to 13 × 10−4 V for mass 38, 0.6 × 10−4 to 3.1 × 10−4 V for mass 39, and 2.3 × 10−2 to 4.8 × 10−2 V for mass 40, based on a system sensitivity of 1.8 × 10−17 mol/V

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Aziz, H.A., Böhme, M., Rocholl, A. et al. Integrated stratigraphy and 40Ar/39Ar chronology of the early to middle Miocene Upper Freshwater Molasse in western Bavaria (Germany). Int J Earth Sci (Geol Rundsch) 99, 1859–1886 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-009-0475-8

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