Annales Societatis Geologorum Poloniae (2017), vol. 87: 1–12. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.14241/asgp.2017.001 ORIGIN OF PARAUTOCHTHONOUS POLISH MOLDAVITES – A PALAEOGEOGRAPHICAL AND PETROGRAPHICAL STUDY Krzysztof SZOPA1, Janusz BADURA2, Tomasz BRACHANIEC1, David CHEW3 & £ukasz KARWOWSKI1 1 Department of Geochemistry, Mineralogy and Petrography, Faculty of Earth Science, University of Silesia in Katowice, Bêdziñska 60, 41-200 Sosnowiec, Poland; e-mails:
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected] 2 Polish Geological Institute – National Research Institute, Lower Silesian Branch in Wroc³aw, al. Jaworowa 19, 53-122 Wroc³aw, Poland; e-mail:
[email protected] 3 Department of Geology, School of Natural Sciences, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland; e-mail:
[email protected] Szopa, K., Badura, J., Brachaniec, T., Chew, D. & Karwowski, £., 2017. Origin of parautochthonous Polish molda- vites – a palaeogeographical and petrographical study. Annales Societatis Geologorum Poloniae, 87: 1–12. Abstract: In this article, the most recent moldavite discoveries in Poland and their host sediments are characteri- sed and discussed. They were discovered at Lasów, located about 8 km north of Zgorzelec (Poland) and Görlitz (Germany), about 700 m from the Polish-German border, close to the Lusatian Neisse (Nysa) River. The tektites were collected from Vistulian (Wiechselian) glacial age sand and gravel of a closed quarry pit, associated with the river terraces. In the Lasów area, the moldavite-bearing sediments are Pleistocene in age and represent Lusatian Neisse terrace deposits. They were redeposited from the upper part of the drainage basin of the Lusatian Neisse, probably washed out from the Miocene sediments that filled the Zittau Depression, the Berzdorf–Radomierzyce Depression, the Višòová Depression and the tectonically uplifted Izera Mts.