Olszew752.Vp:Corelventura
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Annales Societatis Geologorum Poloniae (2005), vol. 75: 199–210. DEVELOPMENT OF THE TURONIAN Conulus LAGERSTÄTTE IN THE WIELKANOC QUARRY, MIECHÓW UPLAND (SOUTH POLAND) Danuta OLSZEWSKA-NEJBERT Institute of Geology, University of Warsaw, Al. ¯wirki i Wigury 93, 02-089 Warszawa, e-mail: don&uw.edu.pl Olszewska-Nejbert, D., 2005. Development of the Turonian Conulus Lagerstätte in the Wielkanoc quarry, Miechów Upland (South Poland). Annales Societatis Geologorum Poloniae, 75: 199–210. Abstract: Turonian sandy limestones and organodetrital limestones exposed in the Wielkanoc quarry, Miechów Upland, South Poland, lie on Oxfordian massive limestones, truncated with an abrasion surface. The bed situated ca. 2.5 m above the abrasion surface contains a parautochthonous and monotypic assemblage of the species Conulus subrotundus Mantell, 1822; thus the concentration can be referred to as the Conulus Lagerstätte. The microfacies analysis of the Conulus Lagerstätte indicates its development to have been determined by the existence of eco-events producing an increased population of Conulus subrotundus, and of sedimentological factors, that is waning of the loose sediment from the sea floor and erosion of the consolidated deposit rich in the earlier fossilised echinoids. The episodes of material accumulation, its consolidation and erosion in high-energy environment (action of bottom current) led to the increase of amount of echinoids as the intraclasts according to the model of lag sediment deposition. Key words: Conulus Lagerstätte, lag sediment, Turonian, Miechów Upland, South Poland. Manuscript received 15 January 2005, accepted 23 August 2005 INTRODUCTION Echinoids of the genus Conulus occurring in the Turo- quarry. Echinoids of the genus Conulus occur in a few parts nian deposits in the Kraków–Wieluñ Upland were noted al- of the section, one bed, however, reveals a particularly high ready in the 19th century (Zarêczny, 1878). Later authors frequency of echinoids. describing the Turonian deposits also noted numerous oc- Seilacher et al. (1985) pointed out that there is no dis- currences of this genus in the Kraków–Wieluñ Upland tinct boundary between “normal” beds containing fossils (Smoleñski, 1906; Alexandrowicz, 1954; Barczyk, 1956; and beds that can be considered as the fossil Lagerstätten. It Bukowy, 1956; Ma³ecki, 1976, 1979; Sobczyk, 1990) and is rather the specific fossil preservation or facts, which draw Miechów Upland (Sujkowski, 1926, 1934; Kowalski, 1948; attention to the fossils, which eventually allow refer to cer- Marcinowski, 1974). Popiel-Barczyk (1958) presented the tain beds as fossil Lagerstätten. This condition is fulfilled by most complete palaeontological description of the genus the concentration of the Conulus echinoids at the Wielkanoc Conulus from the Kraków–Wieluñ and Miechów Uplands. quarry. From the total of 124 medium and well-preserved However, not till in the late 90-ties, Kudrewicz and specimens in the whole Turonian section, 118 were encoun- Olszewska-Nejbert (1997) pointed out the specific occur- tered in one, not so thick (0.45–0.5 m) bed. This allows re- rence of echinoids in the Cretaceous deposits in the vicinity ferring to this bed as an “Echinoid Lagerstätte” or even as of Kraków and showed the link of the increased echinoid the “Conulus Lagerstätte” sensu Seilacher et al. (1985). The frequency with some horizons. Furthermore, they referred term “Lagerstätte”derived from economical deposit nomen- to the echinoid concentration as the “Echinoid Lagerstät- clature (Seilacher et al., 1985) is the most accurate for the ten”. bed with Turonian echinoids from the Wielkanoc quarry. In 1993 and 1999–2000, the author conducted field- The purpose of this study is to reconstruct the sedimen- works in the Miechów Upland, studying a lithological sec- tological conditions and scenario which led to development tion of the Turonian deposits exposed in the Wielkanoc of the Conulus Lagerstätte in this locality. 200 D. OLSZEWSKA-NEJBERT GEOLOGICAL SETTING (Fig. 1) does not exceed 10 m, and usually are much lower (Walaszczyk, 1992). The Wielkanoc quarry is a large aban- The studied section is located in the south-western flank doned quarry in SW part of the Wielkanoc village, located of the Miechów Synclinorium, a tectonic unit within the ca. 31 km northwards from the centre of Kraków (Fig. 1). southern part of the West European Platform. This area to- The Wielkanoc section exceeds 10 m and is the thickest ex- gether with an adjacent north-eastern part of the Great posed Turonian section in the Miechów Upland. It com- Monocline was an uplifted, submarine palaeographic unit prises the uppermost Middle Turonian Inoceramus lamarcki called the Kraków Swell (Walaszczyk, 1992) during the Zone and the lowermost Upper Turonian I. costellatus Zone whole Turonian to Santonian times. It was restricted by the (Walaszczyk, 1992). deeper basins of the Opole Through (OT) to the south-west and the Danish-Polish Trough (DPT) to the north-east. The submarine erosion or non-deposition was common on the MATERIAL AND METHODS Kraków Swell during the Turonian through the Santonian (Walaszczyk, 1992, Olszewska-Nejbert, 2004). In the adja- cent OT and DPT basins, occupying the present-day central The author collected a total number of 124 specimens and north-eastern flank of the Miechów Synclinorium, the of medium and well preserved echinoids of the genus Conu- continuous marly/opoka (siliceous limestones) sedimenta- lus from the section at Wielkanoc; 118 specimens were tion took place during the Late Cretaceous (Walaszczyk, found in bed 8 (Fig. 2). Six specimens were collected from 1992; Olszewska-Nejbert, 1996). In the DPT basin, closer beds 6, 7, 14 and 15. Bed 8 was also the source of numerous to the Kraków Swell, the Turonian and Coniacian siliceous poorly preserved specimens, which were not included in the limestones (opoka facies) are intercalated with organodetri- studied material. Twenty two echinoids from bed 8 were cut tal limestones representing redeposited materials trans- to investigate their internal sediment contents. ported from the Kraków Swell (Walaszczyk, 1992). The Polished thin sections were prepared: one from the peli- Kraków Swell is considered as tectonically active area dur- tic limestone of bed 6, one from the sandy limestone of bed ing the early Late Cretaceous, due to Subhercynian move- 7, five from the various samples of bed 8, and one from the ments (Marcinowski, 1974; Walaszczyk, 1992). The final organodetrital limestone of bed 9. The best section was ob- drowning of the Kraków Swell took place in the late Santo- served and measured of the southern wall of the quarry in nian (Marcinowski, 1974; Walaszczyk, 1992). 1993 (Figs 2, 3). At present, the level of the quarry just The Turonian deposits of the south-western flank of the above the Upper Jurassic (Oxfordian) and Upper Creta- Miechów Synclinorium, exposed on the Miechów Upland ceous (Turonian) boundary does not exist. Miechów Upland Cr Cr ABGdañsk s m B Wolbrom o F-S Shield rd 100 km er Cr Cr Szczecin S a c-cn Sz yn cz Mi c ecin d lin Bia³ystok Porêba Górna - - P o £ó o riu dŸ lis m Jo - M h N D i A L A Cr ec n W Olkusz Upland c-cn Go³cza h t O Poznañ ów ic L linor Glanów Wielkanoc* H Warszawa SS i L I y u O n m P c G l Cr re in cm a o t r i M u Lublin o Crs n m S o Wysocice U Po POLIS D Wroc³aw c li L H U E lin sh RA PL T e T AN E JN Kielce D S u S E r Opole C a C B h a in Pieskowa Kraków Ska³a Ska³a RPATHIANS Cretaceous CA Cr pre-Cretaceous s 5km Iwanowice Cra Cr Albian Cr Santonian Cr Maastrichtian Observed faults Main roads B a s m Cr Cenomanian, Jo Oxfordian c-cn Turonian, Crcm Campanian Supposed faults Wielkanoc quarry Coniacian * Fig. 1. A – Tectonic sketch-map of Poland without Cenozoic cover, explanations do no refer to Carphatians deposits; F–S Shield – thick broken line (“Tornquist line”) indicates a generalized outline of stable margins of the Fenno-Sarmatian Shield (after Marcinowski & Radwañski, 1983, simplified); B – Geologic sketch-map of the investigated area with the location of the Wielkanoc quarry (after Kaziuk 1978, modified and simplified) TURONIAN Conulus LAGERSTÄTTE 201 17 DESCRIPTION OF SECTION Con. Inoceramus lamarcki and I. costellatus Zone (Turonian) 16 Bed 1: thickness 0.6 m. Sandy-organodetrital limestone 1m with glauconite, green in colour, overlying the abrasion sur- face developed on Oxfordian limestones. The abrasion sur- face with borings is infilled with sandy limestone including 15 glauconite, similar as the entire bed 1. Numerous burrows infilled with greenish sandy limestone occur in the lower- most part of the bed. 1 14 Bed 2: thickness 0.45 m. Sandy-organodetrital lime- stone with glauconite, green in colour. Bed 3: thickness 0.6 m. Sandy limestone with glauco- 2 nite, light green in colour, with numerous burrows infilled I. costellatus 13 with the same material as the surrounding; the bed partly re- sembles nodular limestone; numerous crushed inoceramid and Zone 3 shells are present. Bed 4: thickness 0.15–0.2 m. Organodetrital limestone 12 with admixture of quartz sand, grey to light-green in colour, 4 numerous debris of inoceramids are present. Bed 5: thickness 0.2–0.3 m. Pelitic limestone, grey in colour, with distinct ferruginous mineralization at the top of 11 5 the bed. Bed 6: thickness 0.15 m. Pelitic limestone, grey to pink- ish in colour, strongly fractured, with distinct ferruginous Inoceramus lamarcki 10 6 mineralization and traces of an omission surface (firm- or hardground zone) at the top of the bed, including Thalassi- noides traces; scarce echinoids of the genus Conulus. CRETACEOUS 7 9 Conulus 11 Lagerstätte Turonian - 8 10 7 8 6 5 4 9 9 3 8 Middle and Upper 10 2 7 11 6 1 5 4 12 3 JUR.