Time indications in the Rotliegend and the Permian ‘Pangaea Gap’

Time indications in the Rotliegend Group of Germany are integrated and presented in a new way (Menning et al. 2022, ZDDG 173: 3–139). (1) U-Pb CA-ID-TIMS radio-isotopic age determinations from the Thüringer Wald (Lützner et al. 2021, Int. J. Earth Sci.), (2) the recalculated Rb-Sr age for the Donnersberg-Formation of the Saar-Nahe Basin (Menning et al. 2022) utilizing the recently revised ⁸⁷Rb decay constant (Villa et al. 2016, Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta), (3) the newly calculated mean age for the U-Pb SHRIMP data of Breitkreuz & Kennedy (1999, Tectonophysics) of 298.6 ± 1.9 Ma for the Central European Basin (CEB), which reduces the time span for the Altmark Subgroup volcanic succession from 302–290 Ma to ≈ 300.5–296.5 Ma, (4) the Re-Os age of 257.3 ± 1.1 Ma for the Kupferschiefer (base Zechstein Group), (5) the age of ≈ 265 Ma of the Illawarra Reversal of the Earth´ magnetic field, and (6) highly different palaeomagnetic properties of the sediments of the underlying Müritz Subgroup and the hanging Havel Subgroup are significant evidence for an extensive stratigraphic gap or a very gap-rich time span (≈ 295/293.5–266 Ma = Middle Rotliegend). In Central Europe, this gap forms part of the longest Phanerozoic time span without significant marine layers (≈ 311 Ma to ≈ 257.3 Ma = ≈ 54 Ma). The gap is most probably related to the amalgamation and the associated immense uplift of Pangaea in Central and Western Europe and thus termed the ‘Pangaea Gap’.