M. Piecha, M. Salamon, H.-G. Herbig, D. Korn & B. Mestermann:

   The well exposed and completely developed strata of the Hatzfeld section are described and figured
in structural and lithostratigraphic sections.  They show the typical developmentof the upper Lower
Carboniferous (Upper Tournaisian to uppermost Viséan) strata of the Wittgenstein Syncline, southeastern
Rhenish Massif.  Tectonic southeastern vergency is conspicuous,but hitherto was not well described
from that region.  Lithostratigraphically, the strata range from the Kulm Kieselschiefer Formation up to
the Kulm-Grauwacken Formation.  Sparse goniatites and conodonts, and diversified calcareous smaller
foraminifers and calcareous algae improve the correlation of the uppermost Lower Carboniferous of the
basinal Culm and shallow-water facies of NW Europe.  The Asbian/Brigan boundary is correlated with
the boundary between firnbriatus and spirifer goniatite zones in the late Viséan, i.e. with the boundary
between the Kieselige Übergangsschichten and the Kulm-Tonschiefer Formation.  The carbonate
microfacies of calciturbidites, debrites and cephalopod limestones from the upper part of the section
is elucidated.  Source of all calciturbidites was an open marine shallow shelf.  The autochtonous
cephalopod limestones of the crenistria horizon were formed in deeper water. The horizon is the
maximum flooding surface of the late Asbian transgression. In  Hatzfeld, reworking by debrites and
different microfacies patterns prove deposition on the slope of a deep-water swell.  An extraordinary
debrite above already yields reworked crenistria limestone clasts. lt represents the lowstand
systems tract at the base of the Brigantian.