The Late Cretaceous transgression in the Saxonian Cretaceous Basin (Germany): old story, new data and novel findings

Abstract

Meißen, Dresden, Pirna and Bad Schandau is characterised by widespread strata of Late Cretaceous age, constituting the Cenomanian–Coniacian Elbtal Group. Current consensus on the course of the early Late Cretaceous transgression is that a first ingression from the northwest took place in the late Early Cenomanian (Meißen Formation). In the Middle Cenomanian, contemporaneous onlap is allegedly only documented by the fluvial Niederschöna Formation while marine strata are completely absent (see also Hancock 2004, p. 617). In the Late Cenomanian, marine onlap continued with two pulses of sea-level rise, i.e. in the C. naviculare and M. geslinianum ammonite zones, respectively (e.g. Voigt 1994, Tröger 2003). However, new observations such as the presence of a Middle Cenomanian index ammonite in the Meißen Formation (Wilmsen & Nagm 2014) and the record of other presumably marine Middle Cenomanian strata (Tröger 2017) cast doubt on these interpretations. Here, we present new integrated stratigraphic and sedimentological data on the timing and extent of the marine inundation of the Saxonian part of the Saxo-Bohemian Cretaceous Basin from the Meißen–Niederau area, including the first evidence of the Praeactinocamax primus Event for Saxony. Furthermore, the results of this study require modifications of the current lithostratigraphy of the Elbtal Group.