LWL Museum of Natural History – Heiliges Meer Education and Research Center

The area already belongs to the north German lowlands, in the border area to the so-called "Ibbenbürener Karbonscholle". Here there is a broad geological subsidence zone with barely folded sand and clay stones as well as conglomerates and coal seams of the carbon in the deep subsurface. Above it are layers of limestone, marl and dolomite from the Zechstein. The basis for the formation of the sinkholes in the area are formed by several meters of anhydrite layers and rock salt banks, especially in the lower horizon sections of the special Münder marl. These in turn are covered on site by 30 to 80 m thick Quaternary sand layers with organogenic deposits. Fig. 1: Silting succession and floating leaf zone in the '' Holy Sea '' NSG (Photo: R. Pott 1990)The salts are dissolved and washed out by the groundwater. Large cavities arise underground, and - when the overburden can no longer withstand the pressure of the Pleistocene sand layers - it collapses and the sand ri

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There are toilets that can be used (were not locked).