On both sides of the Alps the Permian is represented mainly by thick red sandstones and conglomerates which pass up imper ceptibly into the Trias. In the eastern Alps are the Grodner Sandstones (with a Zechstein dolomite), and the Verrucano Con glomerate, also found in the Appenines. Rothliegende plants ap pear in the Brescian Alps, whilst Kupferschiefer plants occur at Neumarkt (Tirol), in the Venetian Alps and in Hungary.
In England the Permian is represented mainly by the German facies, but to some extent also by that of southern Russia, and is everywhere unconformable to the Carboniferous; whilst in France only the Rothliegende is definitely recognizable, its lower members passing up gradually from the Coal Measures (Autun).
Durham and the south-east corner of Northumberland pro vide the classic area in England, the sequence being as follows : Passage Beds (Permo-Trias)—Red marls with sandstones, gypsum or anhydrite, and, in lower part : Marls with salt and thin magnesium limestone-170-50o ft. Magnesian Limestone Series (Zechstein) : Upper Magnesian Limestone—up to 25o ft. (Hartlepool Anhydrite Bed).
Middle Magnesian Limestone with reefs-30o ft. Lower Magnesian Limestone—up to 240 ft.
Marl Slate ( = Kupferschiefer).
Yellow Sands, quartzose ( ?Rothgeliegende).
The yellow quartz sands are unfossiliferous, but the Marl slate contains fish remains of Kupferschiefer type.
The Middle Magnesian Limestone comprises a broad chain of Bryozoa reef knolls, flanked by bedded dolomites. This reef affords an example of a fauna locked in a sea in which the forms were dwarfed and gradually exterminated as the conditions of life became unfavourable. According to Trechmann the reef resembles that of Possnach and other localities in the Gera district of Thuringia (see above) and may be continuous with it beneath cover.
Traced southwards into Nottinghamshire the Magnesian Lime stone Series becomes thinner by the successive disappearance of its higher members, and what is left takes on a shore facies. The Zechstein sea shrank by desiccation, its margin in Durham moving south and east, in Nottinghamshire north and east, in Thuringia north and west.
Sherlock has recently argued that the upper part of the Mag nesian Limestone Series of Durham is equivalent—by lateral pas sage to Bunter deposits in Nottinghamshire (see TRIAs). There is
certainly a frequent upward passage from many British Permian deposits into those which are Triassic. Hence the probability is that certain beds classed as high Permian may be equivalent to others classed as low Bunter.
In central England various deposits—red marls, sandstones, conglomerates and breccias—which succeed the Carboniferous rocks conformably and were previously allotted to the Rothlie gende have been relegated to the Carboniferous. Certain overly ing unconformable deposits are still considered to be of Lower Permian age, as in places (e.g., Collyhurst Sandstone, south Lanca shire) they are succeeded by fossiliferous marls and bands of magnesian limestone representing part of the Zechstein.
A branch of the Zechstein sea penetrated into parts of Lanca shire, west Cumberland and the Vale of Eden (Westmorland), and into Ireland near Belfast (Cultra), in Tyrone and the Lagan valley.
The Penrith Sandstone of the Vale of Eden, with its included sheets of limestone breccia ("brockrams") is usually attributed to the Rothliegende. It has its approximate counterpart in the sand stones, conglomerates and breccias of Arran (Ballymichael and Lamlash Sandstones, ? Upper Permian), the Brodick Breccia and Sandstone and the Dumfries and Mauchline Sandstones of south Scotland. In Ayrshire and south Lanarkshire they comprise basic lavas, tuffs and volcanic necks.
The Hilton Plant beds of the Vale of Eden are correlated with the Marl Slates, or the Kupferschiefer of Germany, whilst the Magnesian Limestones of west Cumberland (associated with brock rams and gypsiferous shales of Permo-Triassic age) and Ireland, and possibly the Vale of Eden, point chiefly to a Middle Mag nesian Limestone age, although the Upper may also be present in Ireland.
Deposits of supposed Permian age, intimately connected with the Trias, occur in Devonshire.
In southern Europe, central and southern Asia marine sediments of Permian age were deposited in a central ocean, named by E. Suess "Tethys," which from time to time had connection with the Atlantic, and of which the present Mediterranean is a shrunken remnant.