Number of participants: 12 - 35

Departure from Bremen, Conference Center Bremen (Main Entrance): 8.00

Lunch will not be provided by the organizers. You will have the chance to purchase some traditional food.

Arrival in Bremen: early evening

Price per person: 60 €

Field Trip to the Harz Mountains – microbial carbonates

Guided by Jörn Peckmann ()

Recommended reading:
Paul J, Peryt TM (2000) Kalkowsky’s stromatolites revisited (Lower Triassic Bundsandstein, Harz Mountains, Germany). Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 161, 435-458
Peckmann J, Gischler E, Oschmann W, Reitner J (2001) An Early Carboniferous seep community and hydrocarbon-derived carbonates from the Harz Mountains, Germany. Geology 29, 271-274

We plan to visit two locations, one north of the Harz Mountains and one in the Harz Mountains during a one-day field trip (200 km southeast of Bremen). The first site we are going to visit is the type location where Kalkowsky suggested the term "stromatolite" for the first time in the year 1908. The outcrop shows beautiful stromatolites enclosed in lacustrine sediments of the lower Triassic Buntsandstein. The second location is an Early Carboniferous seep site on top of the drowned Devonian Iberg atoll reef. We will be able to examine Devonian reef limestones and Carboniferous seep limestones.

Be prepared for some hiking (approximately 2 hours in total) involving the climbing of one rather steep slope about 3 meters in height. Please bring rain gear – the western Harz Mountains tend to be a pretty rainy place – and proper walking boots. For the lunch break, we will make a stop close to the former border between East- and West-Germany where we will have the chance to purchase some traditional food.

The Devonian Iberg atoll reef and associated Early Carboniferous methane-seep deposits.