Lompret careers

The best place to find Frasnian fossils is the region around Frasnes-lez-Couvin, such as in this quarry of Lompret, near Chimay and Couvin. Here, limestone is still actively mined and fresh material is made available for fossil hunters.

The Frasnian is a period of the Devonian (385 -360 million years ago). It was the period when a shallow sea invaded Flanders and the Kempen Basin. In the area that is now Wallonia, limestone reefs were formed in deeper water environments. It was the southern margin of the Old Red Continent, rich in coral reefs. Jasper Verhaegen compares it in his beautiful book "The History of our Ground" to the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and the reefs of the Caribbean. The Old Red Continent is a geological term used to denote the supercontinent Laurussia (also known as Euramerica) during the Devonian, about 419 to 359 million years ago. Laurussia was formed by the collision of Laurentia (which covers roughly present-day North America) with Baltica (Northern Europe), along with Avalonia (parts of Western Europe).

The Old Red Continent got its name due to the prevalent red color of the rocks. But why are those rocks red? During the Devonian, desert-like conditions prevailed in the interior of Laurussia (the Old Red Continent), leading to significant oxidation of iron. The sediment was mostly deposited in dry, continental environments where plenty of oxygen was present. And that led to red sandstones. However, here we mainly deal with limestones built up by corals. The red discoloration in the fossil corals from the Frasnian was caused by the uptake of iron compounds from the surrounding water and sediment by the corals, and the formation of hematite in the corals.

Pascal Brackman