Mid-German Crystalline High

Image:Gliederung der Varisziden in Mitteleuropa.jpg|thumb|300px|Structural map of central Europe, showing the positions of the Hercynian massifs and the zones in which the basement rocks can be divided.
The Mid-German Crystalline High is a structural high in the Paleozoic geology of Germany. The high forms a northeast-southwest oriented zone through Germany, but actual rock outcrops are sparse since Paleozoic basement rocks are in most of central Germany overlain by younger sedimentary rocks. The Mid-German Crystalline High crops out in the Odenwald, the Spessart, the northern Vosges and some small other massifs.

Structure

The Mid-German Crystalline High forms the northern part of the Saxothuringian Zone of the Hercynian orogeny. To the northwest it is bounded by the Northern Phyllite Zone, part of the Rhenohercynian Zone. Southeast of the Mid-German High lies a zone where early to mid-Paleozoic sediments of the Saxothuringian Basin crop out, metamorphosed during the Hercynian orogeny. Supposedly, during the mid-Paleozoic the Mid-German Crystalline High formed an area were not much deposition took place, perhaps an archipelago, between two marine or oceanic basins. Some authors assume the northern basin's oceanic crust subducted beneath the Mid-German High.

The zone consists of Proterozoic orthogneisses and early Paleozoic volcanic and sedimentary rocks that were metamorphosed at high grade during the Hercynian orogeny. These rocks were intruded by two generations of plutons: Silurian to Early Devonian granitoids and middle Carboniferous granites.