Earliest Jurassic River Deposits in Northeast Bavaria, Germany

Abstract

In northeastern Bavaria/Germany the onset of the Jurassic is indicated by fluvial deposits. Their Jurassic age is proved by paleoflora. The deposits start with a fluvial channel fill composed by fine-grained sandstone and coaly shale containing a small paleofloral assemblage. The streams are draining the slightly higher hinterland of the Bohemian-Variscan Mountains. This channel follows unconformably late Triassic beds of alluvial sheet flows with clayey load and few sandy and muddy channels originating from a mountainous hinterland with subtropical–tropical weathering (Rhaetian Itz Subformation). In contrast to the paleofloral cut at the Triassic/Jurassic boundary the lithologic development does not indicate a severe cut. Only later a change of the relief and the lithology is visible.