The white-yellowish, massive Upper Jurassic dolomite reef rocks (155-150
My) of Upper Franconia are famous for climbers, because of its rich cavities, partly
caused initially by burrowing marine crustaceans (= Lochkalke), partly due to rockweathering
and cave erosion. It is one of the most cave-rich regions in Europe counting
several hundreds of mainly smaller caves, and few very large cave systems. Those are
situated on the Upper Franconia Plateau, which is cut by the Wiesent and smaller
branching river valleys. The Late Jurassic fossils (ammonite steinkerns, and
metasomatic changed silified and originally calcite reef fossils) found within
Pleistocene sediments of the Sophie’s Cave supports reconstructing the Pliocene
plateau and Pleistocene valley erosion history and geomorphological changes in the
surroundings.
Keywords: Upper Franconia dolomite karst, European cave-rich region, Late
(White) Jurassic reefs, metasomatic changed reef fossils, geomorphology change
reconstruction.
