On the origin of the southern Permian Basin, Central Europe.

A detailed study of the structural and stratigraphic evolution of the Southern Permian Basin during latest Carboniferous to Early Jurassic times, supported by quantitative subsidence analyses and forward basin modelling for 25 wells, leads us to modify the conventional model for the Rotliegend-Zechstein development of this basin. The Late Permian-Early Jurassic tectonic subsidence curves are typical for a Permian to Early Triassic extensional stage that is followed by thermal subsidence. However, a purely extensional model is extremely problematic because active faulting during this time is 'minor' and generally hard to document. Using inverse techniques to model the subsidence curves, we q…