Wetterstein Formation

The Wetterstein Formation is named after the Wetterstein Mountains in southern Germany and northwestern Austria. Alternative names for the whole formation or parts of it in stratigraphical (vertical) or facies (lateral) sense are: • Wetterstein Limestone (Wettersteinkalk) • Wettersteinkalk Formation • Wettersteindolomit - used in Semmering and Kalkkögel, Austria • Wetterstein Limestone Formation • Wetterstein kalk/dolomit - used in the Northern Limestone Alps of Austria The Swiss stratigraphical lexicon uses Wetterstein Formation as "informal, but used name" with the following historical variants: • Wettersteinkalk (von Guembel 1861, Fraas 1910) • Wettersteinkalk = Ladinische Stufe (Cornelius 1935) • Wetterstein = Wettersteindolomit = Wettersteinkomplex (Stöcklin 1949) (Fellerer 1964, Kraus 1964) • Calcaire de Wetterstein [sic] = Calcaire du Wetterstein = Formation de Wetterstein [sic] (Hirsch 1966) • Wettersteindolomit, Wetterstein-Dolomit Subunits Its subunits include: • Messerstich Limestone • Schlern Dolomite • Marmolata Limestone • Steinalm Formation • Ramsau Dolomite Formation == Description ==

The Wetterstein Formation, with a total thickness of up to , Diagenesis Dolomitization of the Wetterstein Carbonate Platform is a widespread phenomenon, especially in the Tirolic units of the Northern Calcareous Alps. At the Clessinsperre, the type locality for the underlying Steinalm Formation, intense dolomitization has altered the microfacies characteristics of the Wetterstein Carbonate platform – typical are fore-reef carbonates, later reefal and back-reefal carbonates topped by lagoonal carbonates, making the original features hardly visible. == Fossil content ==

Because, during dolomitisation, traces of fossils are largely lost as a result of recrystallisation, fossils in the Wetterstein dolomite are harder to distinguish, and even in thin sections may be barely recognizable. Wetterstein dolomite is rarely as bituminous as typical Main Dolomite and therefore tends to be much more pure and brighter-coloured. Otherwise, there are no fundamental differences with the Wetterstein limestone. Among others, the following fossils have been described from the Wetterstein Formation: == See also ==