The Earth Story

This spectacular location is the Bastei Bridge over the Elbe River in eastern Germany near the city of Dresden. The rocks are sandstones of the Elbe formation, deposited in waters of a shallow sea during the Cretaceous period. At the time, sea level was much higher than today and oceans covered many of the continents. Rivers brought sand grains pouring into the area that is now central Europe; those sand grains were cemented into strong layers of sandstone. Once the rocks were exposed…they cracked, allowing water into vertical layers. Those spots eroded, but areas that didn’t crack stood strong against erosion, eventually creating this topography. The bridge over the Elbe river was constructed in the mid-1800s out of rocks of the Elbe Sandstone, and today sits within Saxon Switzerland National Park. -JBB Image credit: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/Basteibrücke_morgens_%28Zuschnitt%29.jpg http://books.google.com/books?id=-TI55urJYyEC&pg=PA201&lpg=PA201&dq=Elbe+sandstone+Geology&source=bl&ots=7SO5J_znXh&sig=dbjtSvM0bwWYX6BM83tMO0o_35c&hl=en&sa=X&ei=zSsJU-LZGc_PkQemrIHgCA&ved=0CFUQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=Elbe%20sandstone%20Geology&f=false

The European Monument Valley?

Although the Elbe Sandstone Mountains of southeastern Germany and northern Bohemia (German= Elbestein Gebirge, Czech= Labské pískovce) with its table mountains, conical basaltic hills, plains and ravines are not nearly as dramatic as Monument Valley, they did form in a similar way: by meandering rivers and erosion.

The formation of the Elbe Sandstone Mountains is related to a Cretaceous sea in which sand and debris was deposited by large rivers. The sand and other material became lithified layer upon layer creating a compact sandstone formation. When the Cretaceous seas retreated the sandstone was shaped by weathering and several watercourses of which the Elbe river carved the deepest. After this the sandstone was uplifted and fractured multiple times depositing layers of granite. These layers were intruded by basalt from volcanism in the Tertiary period. Other forms of weathering and erosion (frost, wind, leaching) caused the sandstone to appear as it does today.

The area of monument Valley was once a low plain that was overlain by sediment from the eroding young Rocky Mountains. Slowly a plateau formed of almost 5000m height. Here, the sandstone was extruded by volcanic rocks in the Tertiary as well. Meandering rivers and wind did the rest. Nowadays, monument Valley still lies between 1500-1800m above sea level.

As with monument Valley, the table mountains and rock formations of the Elbe Sandstone Mountains are clearly stratified. In case of Elbe Sandstone with sandstone, granite and basalt; in case of Monument Valley shale, siltstone and (red) sandstone. With the latter, shale was the first to erode. In contrast to the barren Monument Valley, the Elbe Sandstone Mountains are almost completely covered by thick mountain-and gorge forests. These are the few forests in Europe formed without human intervention. The Elbe Sandstone Mountain became a National Park in 1990, the Elbe river still meanders through the landscape.

-OW-

Image: Copyright Michael Gäbler. Sunset from the top of Papststein. Three table Mountains can be seen: Gohrish, Konigstein (in the exact middle with a fortress) and Lilienstein.

References:

http://www.nationalpark-saechsische-schweiz.de/startseite/index.php?version=1&lang_id=0

http://monumentvalley.org/geology/

http://pubs.usgs.gov/bul/0865/report.pdf

Migoń, Piotr. 2010. Geomorphological Landscapes of the World. Springer._ _

Bastei Bridge and the Elbe Sandstone Mountains This spectacular location is the Bastei Bridge over the Elbe River in eastern Germany near the city of Dresden. The rocks are sandstones of the Elbe formation, deposited in waters of a shallow sea during the Cretaceous period. At the time, sea level was much higher than today and oceans covered many of the continents. Rivers brought sand grains pouring into the area that is now central Europe; those sand grains were cemented into strong layers of sandstone. Once the rocks were exposed…they cracked, allowing water into vertical layers. Those spots eroded, but areas that didn’t crack stood strong against erosion, eventually creating this topography. The bridge over the Elbe river was constructed in the mid-1800s out of rocks of the Elbe Sandstone, and today sits within Saxon Switzerland National Park. -JBB Image credit: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/Basteibr%C3%BCcke_morgens_%28Zuschnitt%29.jpg http://books.google.com/books?id=-TI55urJYyEC&pg=PA201&lpg=PA201&dq=Elbe+sandstone+Geology&source=bl&ots=7SO5J_znXh&sig=dbjtSvM0bwWYX6BM83tMO0o_35c&hl=en&sa=X&ei=zSsJU-LZGc_PkQemrIHgCA&ved=0CFUQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=Elbe%20sandstone%20Geology&f=false