Klintholm Quarry

Theme: Danian strata and boundary to Selandian.  
  

Locality: Klintholm Quarry
Description of a Danish GeoSite

Primary identification

1. GeoSite no.:
GS - 2-2.

2. National locality no.:
NGI - 122.

3. GeoSite name:
Klintholm kalkgrave.

4. Location:
Denmark; Eastern Fyn (Funen).

5. Co-ordinates UTM:
System ED50 Zone 32, x=614629, y=6116424.

6. Type of locality:
Quarry.

Primary geological features

7. Main topic:
Stratigraphy.

8. Geo(morpho)logy:
The quarry exposes the succession of Upper Danian bryozoan limestone superposed by Selandian marl. The transition is marked by a lag deposit and intraformational conglomerate repressenting a hiatus.
Towards the end of the Danian the limestone was exposed and eroded, whereafter renewed transgression from West gradually reintroduced marine conditions. Sandwiched in between Danian limestone and Selandian marl is also a thin glauconitic marl, which is a correlative of the Lellinge Greensand (NGI ???). These changes and succession are effects associated to the creation of a basaltic barrier in between Greenland and Norway/Brittain separating Atlantic and Arctic seas, and causing a change from relative warm water to relative cold.
The bryozoan limestone, which has a matrix of coccolothic and other microskeletal debris, is diagenetically altered by cementation. Macro fossils include seaurchins and spines thereof, brachiopods, corals and fragments of crinite stems.
The Kerteminde marl contains sparse marine snails, mollusks, sea urchins and crabs.
The site is conserved for a.o. its geological value in local regulation.

9. Frame / context:
Marine environmental change from southern hot influence to arctic cold. Related to basalt volcanism in the area of the present Iceland.

10. Chronostratigraphy:
Early - Middle Paleocene transition (Danian - Selandian). Hiatus includes the latest Danian and earliest Selandian.

11. Primary value:
Succession of Upper Danian bryozoan limestone superposed by Selandian marl. The transition is marked by a hiatus with a lag deposit and an intraformational conglomerate.

12. Comparative evaluation:
The hiatus is of the shortest duration encountered in Denmark, and the succession is thus the most complete. There are analogue exposures at Lundsg�rds klint (Lundsgaards) and at Lellinge. Comparative exposures outside Denmark are rare (which??).
The bryozoans are more robust than elsewhere in the Danish bryozoan limestone, witnessing the origin of the limestone in relative turbulent shallow water.

13. Comparable GeoSite:
In Denmark: Svejstrup marlpit (GS 2-5; there is no seperate description of the Svejstrup GeoSite in the present material). Supplementary national sites are Lundsg�rds klint (Lundsgaards, NGI 121, type locality of the Kerteminde marl) and Lellinge (NGI ???)

Supplementary data in support of the locality

14. Delineation on a map: 

15. Higth of the GeoSite:
~5 m (from lake level).

16. Area of the GeoSite:
~0,2km x ~0,05km, ~0,01km².

17. Subordinate geological interests:
None.

18. "Non"-geo interests:
Protected area for fire-bellied toad.

19. References:
Berthelsen, O., 1962: Cheilostome Bryozoa in the Danian Deposits of East Denmark. Danmarks geologiske Unders�gelse, II Rk., Nr. 83, 290 s.
Heilmann-Clausen, C., 1995: Pal�ogene aflejringer over danskakalken. I: Nielsen, O.B. (Red.): Danmarks geologi fra Kridt til i dag (2. udgave). �rhus Geokompendier nr. 1, Geologisk Institut, �rhus Universitet.
Sorgenfrei, T., 1949: Nyere unders�gelser over Fyns undergrund. Medd. dansk Geil. foren., H 11.
Thomsen, E., 1994: Calcareous nannofossil stratigraphy across the Danian-Selandian boundary in Denmark. Geol. Foren. Stockholm F�rhandl., bind 116.
Thomsen, E., 1995: Kalk og kridt i den danske undergrund. I: Nielsen, O.B. (Red.): Danmarks geologi fra Kridt til i dag (2. udgave), s 31-68. �rhus: Geologisk Institut, �rhus Universitet.

20. Data sources, collections:
...

21. Illustrations:


22. Proposers:
Dansk Geologisk Forening & Det Kongelige Danske Geografiske Selskab.

23. Description by:
Based on Larsen, G., 2002: Geologisk set, Fyn og �erne, Klintholm Kalkgrave, s 57-60. Fyns Amt, Skov- og Naturstyrelsen, Geografforlaget.

24. Recommandation:
Klintholm is a GeoSite.

25. Comments:
...

26. Supplementary description:
...