The Earth's and Life History of TERRA.vita
Sedimentary rocks form the subsurface of the UNESCO Geopark TERRA.vita, while the landscape was shaped by mountain-building processes and the Ice Age. Fossil finds are significant, giving us an impression of what our landscape looked like in past geological eras. This unique geology can be experienced at so-called geotopes, i.e. geological highlights in the landscape, in nature tours, on thematic adventure and cycling trails or in museums.
This is what it looked like for us in the respective Earth ages:
Carboniferous (here about 313 - 299 million years ago)
The oldest rocks exposed on the earth's surface date back to the Carboniferous period and are about 300 million years old. However, they can only be found at the three elevations of the Hüggel, Piesberg and Schafberg. At that time, today's elevations and mountain ranges did not yet exist ...
While the polar caps were icy at that time, it was tropically warm here - after all, we were close to the equator, more precisely in a basin north of a huge mountain range, the Variscids. Braided river systems flowed through the basin alternating periodically with swamp forests, which were inhabited by metre-sized insects and other arthropods.
The deposits of the rivers eventually formed Carboniferous sandstone or quartzite, which is popular as gravel and building stone, and the peat of the swamps developed into bituminous coal, anthracite and mudstones. At 1,545 metres, the deepest adit in the former Schafberg coalfield was also the deepest coalmine in Europe until 1989.
Experience the Carboniferous at the Piesberg Culture and Landscape Park.
Permian (299 - 252 million years ago)
The end of the Carboniferous period also marked the end of the Ice Age (not to be confused with the current Quaternary Ice Age). From the latest Carboniferous period onwards, no sedimentation took place in the TERRA.vita area for almost 40 million years, but rivers and winds carried away rock material ...
It was not until around 257 million years ago that TERRA.vita became part of a depositional zone once more - on the southern coast of the Zechstein Sea in a large lagoon. Here, oxygen-free conditions prevented the decomposition of living organisms by bacteria, which is why fish with scales and internal organs, plants and the archosaur Protorosaurus speneri were preserved in the so-called copper shale (a dark brown claystone) (on display in the LWL Museum of Natural History in Münster).
Several million years later, the sometimes egg-yellow, dolomitic limestones and rock salts were deposited in a desert-like climate by evaporation in shallow marine environments. The Permian deposits can also only be found at the Hüggel, Schafberg and Piesberg.
Experience the Permian at TERRA.track Geological Trail Hüggel.
Triassic (252 - 201 million years ago)
The name "Triassic" originates from Central Europe. In Germany, including the TERRA.vita Nature and Geopark, the Triassic sequence of rocks can be divided into three sections ...
In the Early Triassic, known as the Buntsandstein in Germany, red sandstones were deposited in a river landscape. The colour of these sandstones is caused by the rusting of iron components in the sediment - yes, soil can rust! This still happens in regions with rainforests.
In the Middle Triassic, called Muschelkalk in Germany, TERRA.vita was located in the tidal zone of an inland sea basin, the Germanic Basin. Archosaurs, relatives of the dinosaurs, and horseshoe crabs left their footprints and tracks in the calcareous mudflats. The mud was churned by molluscs and crustaceans.
In the Late Triassic, called Keuper in German, rivers again ran through our area and deposited mainly sandstones. The sedimentary rocks of the Triassic are mainly found in the Osnabrück area.
Experience the Triassic in the Silberseestollen oder at the Botanical Garden of the University of Osnabrück.
Jurassic (201 - 145 million years ago)
The supercontinent Pangaea, at that time the only continent on Earth, broke up and the Atlantic Ocean gradually opened up. TERRA.vita lay always oscillating between the depths of the Jurassic Sea, in which the famous Vehrter Schwarzkreide (a very dark claystone) was deposited under oxygen-free conditions and the northern coast of a large island called the Rhenish Massif ...
The sea was always pleasantly tropical and warm. One day, about 153 million years ago, a herd of small-bodied long-necked dinosaurs (relatives of the Europasaurus) and three large predatory dinosaurs (theropods) walked along the coastal area of the island and left their footprints. What else might have happened that day? The dinosaur tracks of Bad Essen-Barkhausen can be admired today on a rock wall.
The rocks of the Jurassic period are now exposed along the Wiehengebirge and in the Bielefeld area. Saurians have been found in the region, including the Wiehenvenator albati, the "hunter from the Wiehengebirge", and marine reptiles with flippers such as Arminisaurus schuberti.Experience the Jurassic in the Vehrte black chalk pit, at the Bad Essen-Barkhausen dinosaur tracks, in the Saurierfährten Bad Essen-Barkhausen, at the Kleinenbremen visitor mine or at the Emperor William monument in Porta Westfalica.
Cretaceous (145 - 66 million years ago)
A lot happened in the Cretaceous period. TERRA.vita continued to lie on the northern coast of a large island in the Early Cretaceous. Coal formed once again in the marshy coastal area; the Wealden coal was mined near Kloster Oesede, Hilter a.T.W. and Kirchdornberg ...
Rock material was removed from the island by rivers and winds and deposited mostly as sand in our region. These greenish, particularly hard Osning sandstones now form the crest of the Teutoburg Forest. They were used as building stones for a long time and their yellowish weathering product was marketed as ochre colour pigment at Hilter a.T.W.. You may also discover the numerous ripple marks as evidence of the wave action of the primeval sea in the rock.
About 95 to 70 million years ago, a chain reaction happened: the Pyrenean collision not only led to the formation of that mountain range, but also caused the uplift of the Teutoburg Forest, Wiehengebirge and the elevations between these two ranges. At the same time, a heating event only a few kilometres below the Earth's surface caused the rocks to heat up leading to the growth of large mineral crystals in fissures, and enabling anthracite coal and other rocks to form in the first place.
In the Late Cretaceous, TERRA.vita was once again located in an idyllic tropical sea. The calcareous skeletons of plankton as well as the shells of ammonites, mussels and other calcareous organisms formed a calcareous mud on the seabed, which solidified into limestone and is quarried along the southern slope of the Teutoburg Forest for cement production.
Experience the Cretaceous at the Dörenthe Cliffs, on the Bad Iburg tree top path and TERRA.track Freedenblüte, on the Dyckerhoff Nature and Geopath in Lengerich and in the EarthAgeCenter in the Borgholzhausen Heimathaus.
Palaeogene & Neogene (66 - 5 million years ago)
From about 75 to 55 million years ago, TERRA.vita was once again terrestrial, a region where no sediment was deposited but which was exposed to the forces of erosion ...
Then the subsidence of the North German area caused the primeval North Sea to cover TERRA.vita until at least 12 million years ago. Finds of teeth and bones in the Ankum Heights and in Bünde indicate that the shallow sea was inhabited by a great variety of sharks, including the megalodon, up to 20 meters long, as well as manatees and toothed whales.
The land was inhabited by the prehistoric horse, tapir relatives and bear-dog-like animals. The teeth of sharks are still sharp after many millions of years.
Experience Paleogene & Neogene at the Kuhlhoff Bippen Education Centre with HaiTec Centre.
Quaternary (2.6 - 0 million years ago)
The Quaternary period was dominated by the Ice Age. Huge glacier masses moved from Scandinavia to our region and brought along exotic rocks like granites or volcanic porphyries depositing these as erratic blocks ...
Even the Teutoburg Forest was covered by an estimated 300 metre-thick ice sheet. About 190,000 years ago, a 35-kilometre-wide glacial tongue cleared out the Artland region and piled up sands, gravels and clays to form the Ankumer Höhen and Dammer Bergen - the second largest extant glacial tongue in the world. The giants of the Ice Age, such as the mammoth or the woolly rhinoceros, also lived here at that time. Their bones and teeth have been found in the gravels of the middle terrace of the river Weser.
Apropos, our rivers such as the Düte, Else, Hase, Hunte Werre and Weser also gradually adopted their present course. The most recent period of the earth's history, the Holocene warm period (since about 12,000 years ago), is characterized by the emergence of the moors and our forests, the megalithic and burial mounds, the Varus Battle and our medieval cultural history. However, the Holocene is still part of the Quaternary Ice Age. How long do you think it will take mankind to finish this age of the earth?
Experience the Quaternary at the Varus Battle Museum Kalkriese, at the Hekese megalithic tomb and at the Plaggeneschzentrum at the Lechtingen Mill.
