Formation de Rossemaison

Representation and status

Historical Variants: Terre jaune = Gelberde auct., Rossemaison Formation (Pirkenseer et al. 2018)

Subordinate units

Units at roof

Upper boundary: contact net avec les marnes gris foncé ou une lumachelle à huîtres et riche en quartz du Groupe de Froidefontaine
Lower boundary: Sidérolithique: passage graduel, avec matériel remanié

Age at top

Age at base

Dating Method: Micromammifères de la zone MP20 et charophytes de la zone MP21 (Gander 2013, Pirkenseer et al. 2018, Mojon et al. 2018).

Geographical extent: Dépôts restreints à la partie centrale du Bassin de Delémont.
Type area: Bassin de Delémont (JU)

Type profile

Reference profiles

Tectonic unit (resp. main category)

Kind of protolith

Definition: Pirkenseer Claudius, Rauber Gaëtan, Roussé Stéphane (2018) : A revised Palaeogene lithostratigraphic framework for the Northern Swiss Jura and the Southern Upper Rhine Graben and its relationship to the North Alpine Foreland Basin. Riv. Italiana Pal. Strat. 124/1, 163–246

p.177: Generally yellow to red marls with variable sand content and reworked Sidérolithique components that are limited to the central Delémont subbasin (Liniger 1925). Locally evaporites (gypsum), lacustrine limestones (“Raiche, Raitsche”) and conglomerates are intercalated (e.g. Rollier 1910), thus hinting at a fluvio-lacustrine, probably endorheic environment. The Rossemaison Fm has been historically (mining) subdivided in four units (see Liniger 1925), which however cannot be followed throughout the subbasin.

The Rossemaison Fm pinches out towards the southern basin margin, with a variable maximum thickness of 70 m (drilling COM-F5; 128.0 to 65.0 m, Fig. 10) to more than 140 m near Delémont (abandoned mine Près Grebis; Liniger 1925). At the subbasin margin the thickness ranges between 10 m (Châtillon; Gander 2013) and 4-5 m (drilling HRT-F8; 21.9 to 19.2 m, Fig. 12).

Important Publications: Liniger H. (1925) : Geologie des Delsberger Beckens und der Umgebung von Movelier. Beitr. Geol. Karte Schweiz (N.F.) 55/4, 82 Seiten