Editing Black Forest (section)

=== Basement ===
The geological foundation of the Black Forest is formed by the crystalline bedrock of the [[Variscan orogeny|Variscan]] basement. This is covered in the east and northeast by [[Bunter (geology)|Bunter Sandstone]] slabs, the so-called platforms. On the western edge a descending, [[Fault (geology)|step-fault]]-like, foothill zone borders the Upper Rhine Graben consisting of rocks of the [[Triassic]] and [[Jurassic]] periods.

The dominant rocks of the basement are gneiss (ortho- and paragneisses, in the south also [[migmatite]]s and diatexites, for example on the Schauinsland and Kandel). These gneisses were penetrated by a number of granitic bodies during the [[Carboniferous]] period. Among the bigger ones are the Triberg Granite and the [[Forbach Granite]], the youngest is the Bärhalde Granite. In the south lies the zone of Badenweiler-Lenzkirch, in which Palaeozoic rocks have been preserved (volcanite and sedimentary rocks), which are interpreted as the intercalated remains of a [[Continental fragment|microcontinental]] collision. Still further in the southeast (around Todtmoos) is a range of exotic inclusions: [[gabbro]] from [[Häg-Ehrsberg|Ehrsberg]], [[serpentinite]]s and [[pyroxenite]]s near Todtmoos, [[norite]] near [[Dachsberg|Horbach]]), which are possibly the remnants of an [[accretionary wedge]] from a continental collision. Also noteworthy are the basins in the [[Rotliegend]], for example the Schramberg or the Baden-Baden Basin with thick quartz-porphyry and [[tuff]] plates (exposed, for example, on the rock massif of [[Battert]] near Baden-Baden). Thick {{lang|de|rotliegendes}} rock, covered by bunter, also occurs in the north of the [[Dinkelberg]] block (several hundred metres thick in the Basel [[geothermal gradient|geothermal]] borehole). Even further to the southeast, under the Jura, lies the North Swiss Permocarboniferous Basin.