Exceptional Permian-Triassic outcrops of the Dolomites

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3301/GFT.2026.12 - Pages: 1-66

¹Department of Natural History, Tiroler Landesmuseen, Krajnc-Straße 1, 6060 Hall in Tirol, Austria. ²Museum of Nature South Tyrol, Bindergasse 1, 39100 Bozen/Bolzano, Italy. ³SNSB-Bayerische Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Geologie and Department für Geo- und Umweltwissenschaften, Paläontologie und Geobiologie, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Richard-Wagner-Straße 10, 80333 München, Germany. ⁴Department of Earth System Sciences, University of Hamburg, Bundesstraße 55, 20146 Hamburg, Germany. ⁵Ufficio Geologia e prove materiali, Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano, Via Val d'Ega, 48, 39053 Cardano, Italy. ⁶MUSE - Museo delle Scienze di Trento, Corso del Lavoro e della Scienza 3, 38123 Trento, Italy. ⁷Società Geologica Italiana, Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Sapienza Università di Roma, Piazzale Aldo Moro, 5, I-00185 Rome, Italy. ⁸GEOPARC Bletterbach, Dorf 11, 39040 Aldein, Italy. ⁹Museum Ladin Ursus ladinicus, Str. Micurá de Rü 26, 39030 San Ciascian, Italy. ¹⁰Institute of Geosciences and Earth Resource, CNR, Corso Stati Uniti 4, 35127, Padova. ¹¹Department of Palaeontology, University of Zurich, Karl Schmid Strasse 4, 8006 Zurich, Switzerland. ¹²Department of Physics and Earth Sciences, University of Ferrara, via Saragat 1, Ferrara, Italy.

Corresponding author e-mail: e.kustatscher@tiroler-landesmuseen.at

The Dolomites (northern Italy) yield exceptional Permian–Triassic outcrops with well-developed biostratigraphic, chronostratigraphic, and magnetostratigraphic frameworks. This field guide provides a compact, field-oriented synthesis of key localities spanning the Permian to the Late Triassic. Day 1 focuses on the Permian record in the GEOPARC Bletterbach, where the Auer/Ora Formation (Athesian Volcanic Group) and its overlying terrestrial red-bed succession (Grödner Sandstein/Val Gardena Sandstone) document volcanic emplacement, landscape evolution, arid to semi-arid floodplain processes, and terrestrial ecosystems including plants, palynomorphs, and vertebrate track assemblages. Day 2 starts with the Permian–Triassic boundary at the Pufels/Bulla section, a key shallow-marine succession, and continues with the Seceda succession. The day concludes at Passo Gardena (Sella Massif), highlighting platform–basin architecture and mass-transport processes, including the Gardena Megabreccia and alternative genetic models. Day 3 explores the classic Carnian St. Cassian/San Cassiano Formation in the Pralongià-Stuores-Settsass area and links outcrop observations to the regional palaeontologicalheritag e, including museum collections. At the Stuores Wiesen crops out the GSSP at the base of the Carnian, the so far only GSSP in the Dolomites. Together, these sites illustrate the integrated stratigraphical, sedimentological, palaeontological, and volcanological framework of famous reference sections and evidence environmental and climatic changes through then Permian–Triassic.

Dolomites, Southern Alps, Permian-Triassic, Athesian Volcanic Group, Gröden/Val Gardena Sandstone, Bletterbach, Seceda, Pufels/Bulla, St. Cassian Formation, GSSP.