Kommentare zu: Where on Google Earth #141

Von: Peter L

Peter L — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 07:06:34 +0000

WoGE #142 is up. Enjoy!

Von: fj

fj — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 11:31:26 +0000

Peter: yes, you got the location right and a nice explanation! However, to be pedantic : it’s the Mansfelder Mulde (Mansfeld Basin); Sangershausen Basin is off to the SW.

Mining started in the Middle Ages, around 1200, and proceeded to ever deeper parts of the Copper Shale until the late 1980s.

Here’s a block diagram of those two mining basins (from Wagenbreth&Steiner, Geologische Streifzüge, 1989)

BTW, thanks for exposing me to new language – I didn’t know the word “sterile” yet (only the kind of related “overburden” for open-cast mines).

So now we’re looking forward to your next WoGE!

Von: Peter L

Peter L — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 09:09:45 +0000

51.633N-11.536E, near Hettstedt, Sangerhausen basin, Germany. I certainly wouldn’t find it without your latest hints. The “geological feature not too deep below the surface” is the Late Permian Kupferschiefer, the classical Cu-Zn-Pb-Ba mineralized bituminous marl. My guess is that the “hills” are actually Anthropocene in age, i.e. they are slag heaps around ancient mining pits: the deeper the ore is, the more sterile has been excavated. The depressions atop these heaps must indicate remains of the collapsed pits.

Von: fj

fj — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 16:30:31 +0000

Peter: If you have zoomed around, you’ll see that the swarm of hills is arranged roughly in a (semi-)circular shape around the underlying small “basin”. Taking into acconut that the bigger hills correspond to greater depths of the geological feature, you could infer its dip and therfore the place on the circle where you should look.

Lab Lemming: Germany sounds good, but it’s not really near the coast.

An additional hint:

The geological feature below the surface I have talked about in the first comment is of Upper Permian origin and rather thin.

The little hills are known for their content of various heavy metals, sometimes leading to specific flora and fauna.

Von: Lab Lemming

Lab Lemming — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 05:16:56 +0000

I’d say the Baltic coast of Germany somewhere, but I don’t see the spot.

Von: Peter L

Peter L — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 08:19:32 +0000

I’m pretty sure about the broader region where to look for these features. I knew from the beginning that they must be recent, I also have some loose guesses what they actually may be, I just have no enough patience to find the needle in the haystack. If you zoom out to a more decent scale and fly around a little, you’ll see what I mean.

Von: fj

fj — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:52:04 +0000

Since it’s online for over one week, I’ll start to give some hints.

The little hills are a holocene development related to a geological feature not too deep below the surface. (In fact, the size of the hills and the depth of the feature correlate roughly.)

Von: fj

fj — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 10:09:22 +0000

I’m away for the weekend and will return Monday night, so I won’t be able to post a reply if someone caught this WoGE.