Geology . the commoner clastic southern Germany (Alpine region), the Miocene Molasse (marinebelow and non-marine above) overlies the Oligocene portion of thesame series (p. 250), and is continued into Switzerland. The oceanicconnection of the waters in which the marine beds were depositedwas to the south. Thick conglomerates (3900-5900 feet) of Earlyand Middle Miocene age are found along the north base of the Alps(Rigi). Their materials came in part from formations which are stillvisible, but in part from formations which do not now appear at the THE MIOCENE PERIOD. 277
Geology . the commoner clastic southern Germany (Alpine region), the Miocene Molasse (marinebelow and non-marine above) overlies the Oligocene portion of thesame series (p. 250), and is continued into Switzerland. The oceanicconnection of the waters in which the marine beds were depositedwas to the south. Thick conglomerates (3900-5900 feet) of Earlyand Middle Miocene age are found along the north base of the Alps(Rigi). Their materials came in part from formations which are stillvisible, but in part from formations which do not now appear at the THE MIOCENE PERIOD. 277 Such thick beds of coarse sediment tell something of therelief of the Alpine region at this time. A shallow epicontinental sea covered a part of Belgium and France,overspreading the plains of the Loire and Garonne. From the basinof the latter, there may have been a sea connection with the Mediterra-nean along the northern base of the Pyrenees. Parts of the Iberianpeninsula also, were submerged. r,^Ks1H \J\. Fig. 452.—Sketch-map of Europe in the Miocene period (Helvetian). The continu-ous lines are the areas of marine deposition; the broken lines areas of non-marinedeposits. (After De Lapparent.) The sea covered much of southern Europe, sending an arm upthe valley of the Rhone as far as Mayence, but the water at the headof this basin was changed from marine to brackish in the course ofthe period. From this bay a strait ran eastward between the Alpsand the present Danube, and expanded in the basin of Vienna, oneof the most important areas of the Miocene system. An arm of the 1 Geikie. Text-book, 4th ed., p. 1270. 278 GEOLOGY. sea extended thence through Moravia, and spread far and wide amongthe islands of southeastern Europe, over the regions of the Black andCaspian These great inland seas may be looked upon as therelics of the Tertiary extension of the sea across southern Europe. From the distribution of Miocene strata it is inferred that southernEurope was an extensive
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