Grillenburg Sandstone (german: Grillenburger Sandstein) and Niederschöna Sandstone (''Niederschönaer Sandstein'') belong to the Elbe Sandstones of central Europe. There used to be a number of sandstone quarries in the

Tharandt Forest The Tharandt Forest (german: Tharandter Wald) is a landscape in the centre of the German Free State of Saxony and lies southwest of the forest town of Tharandt, south of the town of Wilsdruff, roughly between the cities of Freiberg and Dresde ...

and its neighbourhood, not far from

Höckendorf Höckendorf is a village and a former municipality in the Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge district, in Saxony, Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most pop ...

(Paulsdorf Heath) and Ruppendorf, near Grillenburg, Niederschöna and Hetzdorf in the state of

Saxony Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...

. These

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of th ...

sandstones emerged in the

Cenomanian The Cenomanian is, in the ICS' geological timescale, the oldest or earliest age of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or the lowest stage of the Upper Cretaceous Series. An age is a unit of geochronology; it is a unit of time; the stage is a unit in the s ...

and

Turonian The Turonian is, in the ICS' geologic timescale, the second age in the Late Cretaceous Epoch, or a stage in the Upper Cretaceous Series. It spans the time between 93.9 ± 0.8 Ma and 89.8 ± 1 Ma (million years ago). The Turonian is preceded by t ...

ages. The aforementioned quarries have long since closed.

Description and use

This sandstone is both fine- and coarse-grained; its colour ranging from white to brown; in addition to

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical form ...

and

mica Micas ( ) are a group of silicate minerals whose outstanding physical characteristic is that individual mica crystals can easily be split into extremely thin elastic plates. This characteristic is described as perfect basal cleavage. Mica is ...

, numerous plant impressions of the genus ''

Credneria ''Credneria'' is an extinct genus in the family or Platanaceae of broad-leaf trees similar to extinct ''Platanus'' species that appeared during the Cretaceous. The genus was first described by Zenker ( 1833) and has formerly been placed in the ...

'' are found in it. According to

sedimentological Sedimentology encompasses the study of modern sediments such as sand, silt, and clay, and the processes that result in their formation (erosion and weathering), transport, deposition and diagenesis. Sedimentologists apply their understanding of mo ...

investigations and historical research, the material for the Golden Gate of

Freiberg Cathedral The Freiberg Cathedral or Cathedral of St Mary (german: Dom St. Marien) is a church of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Saxony in Freiberg in Saxony. The term Dom, a German synecdoche used for collegiate churches and cathedrals alike, is often u ...

came from the "ashlar stratum" (''Werksteinbank'') in the area of Grillenburg.Siegfried Grunert: ''Der Sandstein der Sächsischen Schweiz''. Leipzig 1986, p. 111 The coat of arms of the electoral

Saxon postal milepost A Saxon milepost (german: kursächsische Postmeilensäule, colloquially ''sächsische Postmeilensäule'' or ''Postsäule'') was a milepost in the former Electorate of Saxony that gave distances expressed as journey times to the nearest eighth o ...

Johanngeorgenstadt Johanngeorgenstadt () is a mining town in Saxony’s Ore Mountains, 17 km south of Aue, and 27 km northwest of Karlovy Vary. It lies in the district of Erzgebirgskreis, on the border with the Czech Republic, is a state-recognized health ...

was cut from ''Niederschöna Sandstone'' and the three

Freiberg Freiberg is a university and former mining town in Saxony, Germany. It is a so-called ''Große Kreisstadt'' (large county town) and the administrative centre of Mittelsachsen district. Its historic town centre has been placed under heritage c ...

postal milestones were made of ''Hetzdorf Sandstone''.

Sources

* W. Dienemann und O. Burre: ''Die nutzbaren Gesteine Deutschlands und ihre Lagerstätten mit Ausnahme der Kohlen, Erze und Salze.'' Enke-Verlag, Stuttgart 1929, p. 302. * Forschungsgruppe Kursächsische Postmeilensäulen (publ.): ''Lexikon Kursächsische Postmeilensäulen'', transpress-Verlag, Berlin 1989,

References

{{coord missing, Germany Sandstone Elbe Sandstone Mountains Quarries in Germany Tharandt

Description and use

See also

Sources

References