Ist der Kreuznacher Sandstein des Rotliegenden äolisch oder fluviatil entstanden?

The Kreuznach Sandstone belongs to the youngest Rotliegend sediments in the Bad Kreuznach area, northeastern Nahe Syncline. Because of its large-scale crossbedding — the thickness of sets of cross-strata can exceed — it has been interpreted as a typical aeolian dune sandstone, and has been placed to the Upper Rotliegend/ Zechstein boundary. To find out the origin of the Kreuznach Sandstone, it was examined by various sedimentological methods: petrography, granulometry, bedding and frame of crossbedding, sedimentary structures, facies associations, and quartz grain morphoscopy by scanning electron microscope. Although most of the results do not permit a clear decision between aeolian and fluvial origin, there are some arguments speaking well for fluvial sedimentation of the Kreuznach Sandstone. The very large-scale crossbedding — which is uncommon for river sands — is the sedimentological projection of the tectonic rise of the Kreuznach Rhyolitic Massif. Between the latter and the alluvial fans at the southern edge of the Hunsrück uplift the floods of an (ephemeral ?) stream coming from E/SE were narrowed. Thus water depth, stream velocity and concentration of sands grew rapidly so that megaripples, dunes and giant ripples could be built up. In the East before and in the West behind this narrow pass (as to stream direction) the stream spread out over a large plain, as a system of braided channels. Sand- and mudstones with laminated and small-scale ripple bedding were deposited there instead of the Kreuznach Sandstone.