Geoheritage in the Minett UNESCO Biosphere (Southern Luxembourg): Inventory, Evaluation, and Conservation Aspects of Representative Geosites

Abstract

AbstractThe southwestern part of Luxembourg, known as Minett in the local language use, exposes an exceptionally high diversity of marine near-shore sediment rocks from the Early to Middle Jurassic, owing to its proximal position at the north-eastern margins of the Paris Basin. The iconic Minette ironstone formation is known as the worldwide largest oolitic ironstone deposit from the last 500 my and the abandoned open cast mines are nowadays protected sites with a high biodiversity, intrinsically linked to geodiversity. The schistes bitumineux unit, a lateral equivalent of the well-known Posidonienschiefer of the Holzmaden region (South Germany), is frequently studied for its exceptionally preserved fossils of marine vertebrates, cephalopods, and insect remains, deserving its status as a Fossil-Lagerstätte of international relevance. Of regional importance are the Rumelange limestones, with coral patch-reef paleo-environments. The geomorphological main feature of the region is the Cuesta of the Middle Jurassic (‘Dogger-Schichtstufe’), with several outliers (‘Zeugenberge’) that represent widely visible landmarks in the landscape. In this paper, 16 geosites, representative of the geological, palaeontological, geomorphological, and hydrogeological heritage in the Minett UNESCO biosphere, are presented and evaluated according to scientific, educational, and geotouristic criteria.