Annales Societatis Geologorum Poloniae (2011), vol. 81: 221–239. PRECAM BRIAN AND PALAEOZOIC BASE MENT OF THE CARPATHIAN FOREDEEP AND THE ADJA CENT OUTER CARPATHIANS (SE POLAND AND WEST ERN UKRAINE) Zbigniew BU£A & Ryszard HABRYN Polish Geo logi cal In sti tute – Nati onal Re search Insti tute, Upper Silesian Branch, Królowej Jadwigi 1, 41-200 Sosnowiec, Po land, e-mails: [email protected], [email protected] Bu³a, Z. & Habryn, R., 2011. Pre cam brian and Palaeozoic base ment of the Carpathian Foredeep and the ad ja cent Outer Carpathians (SE Poland and west ern Ukraine). Annales Societatis Geologorum Poloniae, 81: 221–239. Ab stract: In south -east ern Po land and west ern Ukraine, the Outer Carpathian orogen and the Carpathian Foredeep de vel oped in the fore land of the East-Eu ro pean Plat form (Baltica). The area con sists of a number of tec tonic units in cluded in the Trans-Eu ro pean Su ture Zone (TESZ): the £ysogóry–Radom and Ma³opolska blocks in the ter ri tory of Poland, and the Rava Rus’ka Zone, Kokhanivka Zone and Le¿ajsk Massif in the Ukraine. The de vel op ment of the TESZ be gan in the (?Middle) Late Neoproterozoic and was as soci ated with rift ing pro cesses tak ing place along the west ern edge of the East-Eu ro pean Craton (Baltica) dur ing the break-up of the Rodinia/ Pannotia supercontinent. The pas sive mar gin of Baltica evolved into the TESZ dur ing collisional and/or strike-slip movements . In the TESZ (Ma³opolska Block and Le¿ajsk Massif), Ediacaran flysch-type siliciclastics were af fected by weak meta morphism and fold ing dur ing the Cadomian orog eny. The de vel op ment of Cambrian de posits in the East-Eu ro pean Craton, £ysogóry–Radom Block, north east ern part of the Ma³opolska Block (Kielce Fold Belt) and in the Rava Rus’ka and Kokhanivka zones was as soci ated with the post-rift ther mal subsi dence. Tec tonic move ments (so-called Sandomierz phase), which oc curred prob a bly due to an oblique col li sion of the Ma³opolska Block (in cluded into the pas sive mar gin of Baltica) and the East-Eu ro pean Craton dur ing late Mid dle Cambrian to Late Cam brian (pos si bly also Early Ordo vi cian) times, re sulted in the fol low ing: (1) de vel op ment of strati graphical (?ero sional) gaps in the Mid dle and Up per Cam brian sec tions of the Lublin–Podlasie slope of the East-Eu ro pean Craton and the Kielce Fold Belt in the Ma³opolska Block; (2) in tense tec tonic sub sidence of the £ysogóry–Radom Block dur ing the de po si tion of Mid dle and Up per Cam brian sed i ments; (3) de vel op ment of compressional folds in the Lower Cambrian to lower Mid dle Cam brian de posits of the Kielce Fold Belt on the Ma³opolska Block. Ordo vi cian–Si lu rian se ries were de posited in a typ i cal flex ural foredeep ba sin, in which sub si dence and de po si tion rates ac cel er ated dur ing Late Si lu rian (Lud low–Pridoli) and Early De vo nian (Lochko- vian) times. It is postu lated that the present po si tion of the Ma³opolska Block rel a tive to the £ysogóry–Radom Block and East-Eu ro pean Craton re sulted from post-Silu rian dextral move ments be tween the Ma³opolska Block and the East-Eu ro pean Craton. De vo nian–Car bon if er ous de posits oc cur only in the Ma³opolska Block lo cated in the Variscan fore land. The Mid dle-Late De vo nian and Early Car bon if er ous shal low-ma rine car bon ate plat forms de vel oped un der an extensional re gime. The siliciclastic Up per Visean–Lower Namurian A Culm se ries were de posited in the flex ural Variscan fore land ba sin. Dur ing the Late Namurian A, the Ma³opolska Block was up lifted in re sponse to the build-up of compressional fore land stresses. Dur ing post-Car bon if er ous times, the Pre cam brian and Palaeozoic de posits were sub ject to ero sion and re struc tur ing dur ing the Al pine orog eny. Key words: base ment, Carpathians, Carpathian Foredeep, East-Eu ro pean Plat form, Trans-Eu ro pean Su ture Zone, south-east ern Po land, west ern Ukraine. Manu script re ceived 16 February 2011, ac cepted 13 October 2011 IN TRO DUC TION In the flex ural Carpathian foreland ba sin and un der the The Pre cam brian and Palaeozoic (ex clud ing Perm ian) Outer Carpathians of south-east ern Poland and west ern serie s of this area form part of the Ma³opolska and £yso- Ukraine, deep boreholes pro vide con trol on the distri bu tion góry–Radom blocks (terranes ) of Poland and the Le¿ajsk of vari able thick nesses of Palaeozoic sed im ents (Cambrian Mas sif and Kokhanivka and Rava Rus’ka zones of the to Car bon if er ous) and the Pre cam brian base ment be neath Ukraine. These tectono-sedi m entar y units form part of the the Permian and Me so zoic se ries (Fig. 1). Palaeozoic de pos - Trans-Euro pean Su ture Zone (TESZ) that ex tends along the its are only exposed in the Holy Cross Mts. area, to the north south-western margin of the East-Eu ropean Craton (Bal- of the Carpathian Foredeep. tica), and which are com monly treated as parts of the Pala- 222 Z.B U£A &R. HABRYN Fig. 1. Tect onic reg ional subd iv is ion of the south-easte rn part of Pol and and weste rn Ukraine at the sub-Permi an–Mes oz oic palaeosurface (cent ral and weste rn parts of the map aft er Bu³a et al., 2008) PRE CAM BRIAN AND PALAEOZOIC BASE MENT OF THE CARPATHIAN FOREDEEP 223 eozoic (epi-Variscan) Plat form of cen tral and western Eu - thian to the southeast from Kraków in the di recti on of Smil- rope, also re ferred to as the West-Eu ro pean Plat form (e.g., no in Slovakia. The north eastern boundary of the Ma³opol- Kruglov & Tsypko, eds, 1988; Mizerski & Stupka, 2005; ska Block, at the contac t with the £ysogóry–Radom Block, Oszczypko et al., 2006). is marked by the Holy Cross Fault, which is well define d in Sed i men tary-di a strophic pro cesses, oc cur ring at dif fer- the Holy Cross Mts. in the area be tween Kielce and Sando- ent times (from Precam brian to Carbon ifer ous) and with mierz (Fig. 1). differ ent in tensit y within each of the above-menti oned tec- Var i ous in ter pre ta tions have been ad vanced for the tonic units, which should be treated as sepa rat e lithospheric south-east ward conti n u ati on of the Holy Cross Fault (e.g., units, result ed in the observe d differ ence s in their geolog i - Tomczyk, 2000; Modliñski & Szymañski, 2005; Poprawa, cal struc ture. The boundari es be tween these units are 2006b; Narkiewicz, 2007; Narkiewicz et al., 2007) into the marked by re gional, re peat edly re ac tivated fault zones, gen - area where Palaeozoic rocks oc cur at large depths be neath er ally of a strike-slip na ture. the Neogene cover of the Carpathian Foredeep and where Lim ited control on the strati graphical po siti on and li- this area is deli n eated on the basis of both geo physi cal and thlogical char ac ter is tics of Pre cam brian and Palaeozoic se - geo log i cal in ves ti ga tions. In this pa per we ad here to the ries occur ring in this area render it diffi cult to deci pher the course of the Holy Cross Fault as shown in the geolog i cal and tec tonic devel op ment of the dif ferent units, giv ing rise to struc tural maps of the Pre cam brian and Palaeozoic base ment quite sig nif i cant dif fer ences in views con cern ing their pala- of the Outer Carpathians and Carpathian Foredeep (Bu³a & eotectonic and palaeogeographical evolu ti on and the age of Habryn, eds, 2008) and with refer ence to the views of Tom- their con sol i da tion. Dis crep an cies also con cern the course czyk (2000) and Modliñski and Szymañski (2005), suggest - of bound aries be tween the in di vid ual tec tonic units. ing that it runs from Sandomierz towards Lubaczów, where it This paper at tempts to clar ify some of the contro ver sie s approache s the border with the Ukraine (Figs 1, 2). regard ing the above-menti oned problem s on the tec tonic In that area of the Ma³opolska Block that co incide s with po si tion and palaeogeographical and tec tonic de vel op ment the marginal part of the Outer Carpathians and Carpathian of the Pre cam brian and Palaeozoic suc ces sion in the base - Foredeep, Pre cam brian (Ediacaran) rocks and var ious in ment of the Carpathian Foredeep and in the marginal part of age Palaeozoic depos it s subcrop at the sub-Perm ian–Meso - the Outer Carpathians in SE Poland and west ern Ukraine, zoic or sub-Cainozo ic (Mio cene) uncon form ity (Fig.