Work is scheduled to begin on 29 September 2025 on a drilling site on the B3 trunk road between Pattensen and Elze, west of Schulenburg. The coring borehole is planned to reach a depth of 350 metres to investigate rock strata roughly 205 to 180 million years old, spanning from the late Keuper to the late Early Jurassic. “These strata are accessible at only very few locations in Lower Saxony,” explains Dr Rüdiger Koch, who co-leads the project at the LBEG, underscoring the significance of the borehole. The project forms part of the geological state mapping programme, through which the State Authority, acting as the State Geological Survey of Lower Saxony, examines the subsurface nationwide and systematically and makes the results available to the public. The data obtained will provide key foundations on rock composition and the geological history of the region. The aim is to recover a complete, undisturbed succession of layers by means of the core drilling. This succession—presumably composed of mudstones with interbedded sandstone layers—will be characterised in detail at the LBEG and interpreted with regard to its geological formation. To this end, the one-metre-long cores with a diameter of ten centimetres will subsequently be analysed in the rock laboratory for rock-specific features such as sedimentary structures, fossils or traces of former life.

The project team hopes, among other things, to gain more precise insights into what the region looked like in the time of the dinosaurs. Current knowledge suggests there was a coastal zone with an extensive river delta that was gradually inundated by a sea inhabited by ammonites. This evolution produced different sedimentary rocks: sandstones formed mostly near the mainland—on beaches or in fluvial parts of the delta—whereas mudstones accumulated in deeper marine basins. How exactly this landscape change unfolded in the Hanover–Hildesheim area, what the mudstones reveal about the environmental conditions of the former Early Jurassic sea, and what fossil remains or trace fossils they contain will be examined in detail by LBEG geologists.

Borehole geophysical measurements at LIAG

n addition to the geological and mineralogical analysis of the core, the borehole itself will be investigated using numerous geophysical measurements. These methods provide further indications of the rock properties within the drilled sequence. Researchers from the LIAG Institute for Applied Geophysics will carry out part of the borehole geophysical logging.

The new findings will also be used to validate and improve geological maps and 3D models, providing an indispensable basis for the responsible management of the geological subsurface.

Further information

he drilling operations comply with all conditions of the water law permit, for example regarding soil and environmental protection. Any impacts on the near-surface environment or groundwater will be prevented by appropriate measures. After the drilling and testing have been completed, the borehole will be fully backfilled and the site restored so that the agricultural land can be used without restriction. The duration of the drilling and backfilling work is estimated at around three months.

Link to the original LBEG press release: https://www.lbeg.niedersachsen.de/aktuelles/pressemitteilungen/lbeg-untersucht-mehr-als-200-millionen-jahre-alte-gesteinsschichten-bohrung-bei-pattensen-soll-350-meter-in-die-tiefe-gehen-245207.html