The Sorthat Formation is a geologic formation on the island of Bornholm, Denmark and in the Rønne Graben in the Baltic Sea. It is of Latest Pliensbachian to Late Toarcian age. Plant fossils have been recovered from the formation, along with several traces of invertebrate animals. The Sorthat Formation is overlain by fluvial to lacustrine gravels, along with sands, clay and in some places coal beds that are part of the Aalenian-Bathonian Bagå Formation. Until 2003, the Sorthat Formation was included as the lowermost part of the Bagå Formation, recovering the latest Pliensbachian to lower Aalenian boundary. The Sorthat strata reflect a mostly marginally deltaic to marine unit. Large streams fluctuated to the east, where a large river system was established at the start of the Toarcian. In the northwest, local volcanism that started in the lower Pliensbachian extended along the North Sea, mostly from southern Sweden. At this time, the Central Skåne Volcanic Province and the Egersund Basin expelled most of their material, with influences on the local tectonics. The Egersund Basin has abundant fresh porphyritic nephelinite lavas and dykes of lower Jurassic age, with a composition nearly identical to those found in the clay pits. That indicates the transport of strata from the continental margin by large fluvial channels of the Sorthat and the connected Röddinge Formation that ended in the sea deposits of the Ciechocinek Formation green series.
Stratigraphy
On Bornholm, the lower-middle Jurassic succession is composed of the Rønne (Hettangian–Sinemurian), Hasle (lower–upper Pliensbachian), Sorthat and Bagå Formations. The major Pliensbachian–Bathonian coal-bearing clays and sands that overlie the Lower Pliensbachian Hasle Formation are distributed between both the Sorthat Formation and the overlaying Bagå Formation. The Sorthat Formation is the sister unit of the Röddinge Formation, with both being part of the same fluvial system, as well the regional equivalent of the Ciechocinek Formation of Baltic Germany and Poland, the Fjerritslev Formation of the Danish Basin and the Rya Formation on Scania. The Sorthat Formation beds were referred originally to the Levka, Sorthat and Bagå beds. A major section of the formation is the Korsodde coastal section, located on the southwest part of the island. A detailed stratigraphic interpretation of the beds has been difficult to achieve, in part due to the complicated block faulting, but especially due to the absence of marine fossils and distinct marker beds. The rocks were originally dated as Middle Jurassic using megaspore contents, with the Levka and Sorthat beds being roughly contemporaneous and the Bagå beds possibly slightly younger. Later, when more advanced palynological studies from locations such as the Levka-1 core-well and the Korsodde section Upper Pliensbachian stratum became available, the coals and clays of the Levka beds were removed from the Bagå Formation, as were the coal-dominated beds of the Korsodde and Onsbæk sections. At the time, several megaspores were found to be common in both the Bagå Formation and Sorthat beds, implying the presence of Toarcian–Aalenian strata, although the dating of the megaspore-bearing strata is tentative. With both, the palynological and sedimentological study of all available exposures and cores from the Lower–Middle Jurassic shows that the Hasle Formation (Lower–Middle Pliensbachian) is covered by a succession referable to both the Levka and Sorthat beds, which are composed mostly by bioturbated sands, heteroliths and clays along with abundant coal veins, and contain relatively diverse brackish to marine dinoflagellate assemblages that are indicative of upper Pliensbachian, Toarcian and possibly lower Aalenian strata. The upper stratum is covered by the fluvial gravels and sands, along with lacustrine clays, carbonaceous clays and coals belonging to the Bagå Formation.