The Döhlen Basin () is a landscape unit in the German federal state of

Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...

, southwest of

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

. The Döhlen Basin has a length of 22 km and a width of 6 km and lies within the district of

Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge Saxon Switzerland-Eastern Ore Mountains (, ) is a district ('' Kreis'') in Saxony, Germany. It is named after the mountain ranges Saxon Switzerland and Eastern Ore Mountains. History The district was established by merging the former districts ...

Description

In the centre of the basin is the large county town of

Freital Freital is a town in the district of Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge in Saxony, Germany. The town is situated on a small river, the Weißeritz, and is southwest of Dresden. Geography Freital is located southwest of Dresden in the Döhlen Ba ...

; although the basin is named after Döhlen, one of the villages in its borough. The highest point in the area is the Lerchenberg near Possendorf at 425 m above sea level (NN); the lowest point is in the river valley of the

Weißeritz The Weißeritz (; also: ''Vereinigte Weißeritz'' in German i.e. United Weißeritz, ''Bystrica'' in Sorbian) is a river of Saxony, Germany. It is long and a left tributary of the Elbe. The river is formed by the confluence of the Wild Weißer ...

at 160 m above NN. The Karsdorf fault forms the geological boundary with the Eastern Ore Mountains to the south. The formation and

sedimentation Sedimentation is the deposition of sediments. It takes place when particles in suspension settle out of the fluid in which they are entrained and come to rest against a barrier. This is due to their motion through the fluid in response to th ...

of the basin lasted from

Upper Carboniferous Upper may refer to: * Shoe upper or ''vamp'', the part of a shoe on the top of the foot * Stimulant, drugs which induce temporary improvements in either mental or physical function or both * ''Upper'', the original film title for the 2013 found f ...

to the Lower Permian and were

tectonically Tectonics ( via Latin ) are the processes that result in the structure and properties of the Earth's crust and its evolution through time. The field of ''planetary tectonics'' extends the concept to other planets and moons. These processes ...

affected by the adjacent NW-SE trending fault zone (the Elbe Valley zone). About half of the 800-metre-thick basin filling is made of

pyroclastic rock Pyroclastic rocks are clastic rocks composed of rock fragments produced and ejected by explosive volcanic eruptions. The individual rock fragments are known as pyroclasts. Pyroclastic rocks are a type of volcaniclastic deposit, which are deposit ...

. Of economic importance were the

coal seam Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extrac ...

s of the Döhlen formation, whose occurrence has been known since the 16th century and particularly in the late 19th and early 20th century was the reason for an intensive mining industry. From 1968,

mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

activity became restricted to the extraction of

uranium Uranium is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Ura ...

-bearing

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

on the northwest edge of the Döhlen Basin by SDAG Wismut. Since 1989, the surface and underground facilities in the region have been safeguarded and sanitised.

References

* Sächsisches Landesamt für Umwelt und Geologie / Sächsisches Oberbergamt ub. ''Das Döhlener Becken bei Dresden. Geologie und Bergbau.'' Dresden 2007.
digitalised (pdf file, 44 MB)

External links

S. Janetz & S. Stute: Das Döhlener Becken - Geschichte einer Landschaft ("The Döhlen Basin - History of a Landscape")
Basins of Germany Geology of Germany Mining in Saxony Natural regions of Saxony Freital {{ore-mountains-stub

Description

See also

References

External links