LTER Site Neusiedler See-Seewinkel - Austria

The Seewinkel is located in the small Hungarian Plain or Pannonian Basin and is the lowest-lying region in Austria at an altitude of 114 metres above the Adriatic Sea. This lowland plain is separated from the Vienna Basin by the Leitha Mountains and is characterised by a gentle, hilly terrain consisting of incompletely consolidated sediments.
In the middle Tertiary period, around 16 million years ago, the area of today's Lake Neusiedl was covered by the foothills of the Thetys and characterised by a tropical-subtropical climate. The red algae and coral reefs found in the coastal areas subsequently contributed to the formation of the Leitha limestone.
The folding of the Alpine and Carpathian arcs led to tectonic subsidence of the areas in between. With the retreat of the Parathetys 13 million years ago, inland waters formed in the resulting lowlands, in which thick layers of sand, clay and loam were deposited. The Pannonian Plain and the Vienna Basin were formed. The four most recent ice ages contributed to the accumulation of enormous quantities of fluvial sediments. The interplay of tectonics and sedimentation also created characteristic metamorphic rocks such as limestone, sandstone and mica schist under enormous pressure. In short, the geology of northern Burgenland is characterised by crystalline rocks such as granite gneiss as footwall and younger sediments such as gravel and pebbles on the hanging wall.