The Black Jurassic or Black Jura (german: Schwarzer Jura) in earth history refers to the lowest of the three lithostratigraphic units of the South German Jurassic, the latter being understood not as a geographical, but a geological term in the sense of a lithostratigraphic

super group ''Super Group'' is an album by the Japanese rock trio Shonen Knife. It was released in Japan on 7 November 2008, in the USA on 20 May 2009, and in the UK and Europe in 2010. The original Japanese CD issue was released as a mini-LP cartoon packa ...

. Formerly and even occasionally today in the popular scientific literature, this term is equated to the

chronostratigraphic Chronostratigraphy is the branch of stratigraphy that studies the ages of rock strata in relation to time. The ultimate aim of chronostratigraphy is to arrange the sequence of deposition and the time of deposition of all rocks within a geologi ...

series of the Lower Jurassic. This is however not quite correct, because the Black Jura does not exactly coincide with the chronostratigraphic boundaries of the Lower Jurassic. In addition, the term ''lias'', which was formerly frequently used (and sometimes is today) as a

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are al ...

, should no longer be used in connexion with the South German Jurassic. Instead, the term ''lias'', or ''North German Lias'', should be reserved for the roughly equivalent lithostratigraphic unit in the North German Jurassic. The deposition of the Black Jurassic took place about 199 to 175 million years ago. The Black Jurassic follows the lithostratigraphic unit of the

Keuper The Keuper is a lithostratigraphic unit (a sequence of rock strata) in the subsurface of large parts of west and central Europe. The Keuper consists of dolomite, shales or claystones and evaporites that were deposited during the Middle and Lat ...

and is superimposed on the lithostratigraphic group of the Brown Jurassic.

Literature

* Gert Bloos, Gerd Dietl & Günter Schweigert: ''Der Jura Süddeutschlands in der Stratigraphischen Tabelle von Deutschland 2002.'' Newsletters on Stratigraphy, 41(1–3): 263–277, Stuttgart, 2005, * Eckhard Mönnig: ''Der Jura von Norddeutschland in der Stratigraphischen Tabelle von Deutschland 2002.'' Newsletters on Stratigraphy, 41(1–3): 253–261, Stuttgart, 2005. * Friedrich August Quenstedt: ''Das Flözgebirge Würtembergs. Mit besonderer Rücksicht auf den Jura''. Verlag der Laupp’schen Buchhandlung, Tübingen, 1843.

External links

*Deutsche Stratigraphische Kommission (ed.): ''Stratigraphische Tabelle von Deutschland 2002'', Potsdam, 2002.
pdfGeologische Übersicht der Schichtenfolge in Baden-Württemberg
(pdf; 183 kB) * (pdf; 12 kB) {{Authority control *Black Jurassic Jurassic System of Europe Geologic formations of Germany