Bed-by-bed correlation of trench-plain turbidite sections, Campanian Zementmergel Formation, Rhenodanubian Flysch Zone of the East Alps

Abstract

Tracing individual turbidites for long distances by means of finger-printing through correlation of detailed measured field sections is one important source of information for the quantitative treatment of the flow process of turbidity currents. Due to their predominant occurrence in the deep sea, turbidity currents are hidden from direct observation and need to be studied by their deposits and the morphology of the depositional environment which they create. Few successful correlation attempts have been reported in the literature. This is because most environments of turbidite deposition do not contain very extensive continuous beds and are not suitable for correlations, not to speak of the painstaking efforts required for correlations. In this chapter a new example of a bed-by-bed correlation is presented from the Upper Cretaceous helminthoid flysch in the Rhenodanubian Flysch Zone (East Alps) in Germany.