Hohenäcker Quarry near Rodenbach

In the Hohenäcker quarry near Frankenberg-Rodenbach, the rocks of the "Battenberg Formation" are exposed in exemplary form as terrestrial deposits all the way up to the "Stätteberg Formation", a marginal facies formation of the Zechstein sea about 255 million years ago. The rocks represent the continuous alternation between land surface and marine space in the Upper Permian, which is generally typical for the entire eastern margin of the Rhenish Slate Mountains and especially for the Waldeck-Frankenberg district.

We recently introduced a new interactive augmented reality project here at the Hohenäcker Quarry!
Use the QR codes below and experience the Hohenäcker Quarry and the Frankenberg Grain Ears from anywhere!

The information is presented in the form of audio files, animations and a 3D simulation and let you dive deep into a world 255 million years ago!
As a highlight you can take a picture of yourself and your friends and family with the lifelike Frankenberger Kornähre.
Together we can bring the past to life!

The strongly terrestrially influenced lagoonal facies of the "Stätteberg Formation" is exposed almost in its entire thickness of about 13 meters. It consists of claystones and marls, carbonates and bituminous limestones and dolomites with an impoverished marine fauna. Yellow-brown sandstones are intercalated in these, which were deposited as deltaic fillings in a shallow marginal sea. Well recognizable sedimentary structures (inclined stratification, ripple marks, rolling and grinding traces) provide information about the depositional conditions at that time.

Numerous fossils are found in the sediments. Besides shells and snails, plant remains of Zechstein conifers - among others Pseudovoltzia and Ullmannia, the so-called "Frankenberger Kornähren" - could be found. The finds offer a unique insight into the plant world at the edge of the Zechstein sea. Thus, the Hohenäcker quarry is the floristic counterpart to the Korbacher Spalte, whose bone finds of Upper Permian vertebrates provide a worldwide unique document of the terrestrial fauna of the Zechstein period.

TIP

At the entrance to the quarry is an information pavilion and a fossil knocking place for children. Please bring a hammer or similar!