By Friedhart Knolle & Stefan Kempe

Where?

The landscape of the South Harz is dominated by gypsum karst forming one of the largest continuous gypsum karst areas in Europe (Kempe 1996). It occupies a narrow belt extending through the States of Lower Saxony, Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt (Federal Republic of Germany) from Osterode am Harz in the West to Sangerhausen in the East (Fig. 1). This gypsum belt has developed a remarkable density of a large variety of karst phenomena throughout the Pleistocene and Holocene. Karstification occurs mostly in the gypsified anhydrite layers of the Upper Permian, i.e. the anhydrite members A1, A2, A3 of the Werra, Staßfurt and Leine Zechstein salinar series, respectively. This outstanding area is worth of preservation, and several parts are protected, however, its importance is not well known internationally. (more…)