The Kasterlee Formation and its relation with the Diest and Mol Formations in the Belgian Campine

Stratigraphic analysis of cored and geophysically logged boreholes in the Kasterlee-Geel-Retie-Mol-Dessel area of the Belgian Campine has established the presence of two lithostratigraphic units between the classical Diest and Mol Formations, geometrically related to the type Kasterlee Sand occurring west of the Kasterlee village and the study area. A lower ‘clayey Kasterlee’ unit, equivalent to the lithology occurring at the top of the Beerzel and Heist-op-den-Berg hills, systematically occurs to the east of the Kasterlee village. An overlying unit has a pale colour making it lithostratigraphically comparable to Mol Sand although its fine grain size, traces of glauconite and geometrical position have traditionally led stratigraphers to consider it as a lateral variety of the type Kasterlee Sand; it has been named the ‘lower Mol’ or ‘Kasterlee-sensu-Gulinck’ unit in this study. In the present analysis, the greenish glauconitic Kasterlee Sand in its hilly stratotype area evolves eastwards into the lower ‘clayey Kasterlee’ unit and possibly also into an overlying ‘lower Mol’ or ‘Kasterlee-sensu-Gulinck’ unit, although it is equally possible that the latter unit has an erosive contact and therefore is stratigraphically slightly younger than the type Kasterlee Sand west of the Kasterlee village. A lateral extension of this detailed stratigraphic succession into the faulted zone of east Limburg is proposed.