Swiss Journal of Geosciences (2018) 111:245–267 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00015-017-0297-9 (0123456789().,-volV)(0123456789().,-volV) The Sˇarisˇ Transitional Zone, revealing interactions between Pieniny Klippen Belt, Outer Carpathians and European platform Edyta Jurewicz1 Received: 4 January 2017 / Accepted: 21 December 2017 / Published online: 16 January 2018 Ó The Author(s) 2018. This article is an open access publication Abstract The Pieniny Klippen Belt (PKB) is a narrow structure delineating the boundary between the Central and Outer Carpathians. It is built of nappes stacked during the Cretaceous and Paleocene and then re-folded in the Miocene during the formation of the Outer Carpathian overthrusts. The internal structure of the PKB at the Polish/Slovakian border first formed during northward nappe thrusting processes, which were most intense at the turn of the Cretaceous to the Paleocene. A secondary factor is the change in strike of the PKB turning from W–E to WNW–ESE, associated with dextral strike-slip faulting in the Carpathian basement (North-European Platform). These NNW-SSE oriented strike-slip fault zones, broadly parallel to the Teisseyre-Tornquist Zone, are responsible for the segmentation of the down-going plate, which influenced the sub- duction and collision between the North-European Platform and the Central Carpathian Block. Among them, the most important role was played by the Krako´w—Myszko´w Fault Zone separating the Małopolska and Upper Silesian blocks in the Carpathian foreland. Shifts and interactions between the neighboring Pieniny and Outer Carpathian basins—during contemporaneous sedimentation and deformation—resulted in a difficult-to-define, transitional zone. Until now this zone had the rank of a tectonic unit, named ‘‘Grajcarek Unit’’ in Poland and ‘‘Sˇarisˇ Unit’’ in the Slovak Republic. However, its northern boundary, often taken to represent the Central/Outer Carpathians boundary, is ambiguous. These problems are due to the spatial overlap of thrusting and gravitational flows resulting in chaotic breccias, olistoliths and olistostrome for- mation, which formed repeatedly and became deformed during the Maastrichtian to Early Miocene. Tectonic deformations in this area gradually vanished towards the north. This zone can therefore be defined as the Peri-Klippen part of the Magura Nappe that lacks a distinct northern tectonic limit. For this reason it is named Sˇarisˇ Transitional Zone (SˇTZ). Keywords Chaotic sediments Á Polygenetic me´lange Á Olistoliths Á Strike-slip duplexes Á Sˇarisˇ Transitional Zone (SˇTZ) Á Pieniny Klippen Belt (PKB) 1 Introduction as slumping and olistostrome formation (Festa et al. 2016) and/or purely tectonic disintegration (me´lange formation; Chaotic sedimentary deposits typically appear in the fore- Hsu¨ 1968). Usually they are composed of a shaly matrix land of thrust-belts and accretionary prisms and are syn- with blocks of both local and exotic material. chronous with nappe thrusting processes. Their genesis In the literature the most external part of the Pieniny may involve gravity-induced sedimentary processes such Klippen Belt, near the Poland—Slovakia border, is referred to as Grajcarek Unit in Poland (Birkenmajer 1977, 1986)or Sˇarisˇ (Fakl’ovka) Unit in the Slovak Republic (Plasˇienka Editorial handling: S. Schmid. et al. 2012). It has the character of a transitional zone Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article towards the Outer Carpathians. This unit formed as an (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00015-017-0297-9) contains supplementary effect of interactions between the Pieniny Klippen Belt and material, which is available to authorized users. the northerly adjacent the Magura basins as a part of the Outer Carpathians that define the Carpathians arc (Fig. 1a, & Edyta Jurewicz [email protected] b), which formed during the Paleogene–Neogene as the result of subduction and convergence of Alcapa with the 1 Faculty of Geology, University of Warsaw, Al. Zwirki_ i European plate (e.g. Nemcˇok et al. 1998 ; Froitzheim et al. Wigury 93, 02-089 Warsaw, Poland 246 E. Jurewicz CCzorsz zo rs andesites b ztynty Lake Wżar POLAND faults n D L a u k n Magura Nappe e a j e c MAGURA NAPPE strike - slips N Bryjarka Krościenko a’ c’ Central Carpathian Paleogene deep fracture t Czorsztyn a l Sub-Pieniny klippen d e zones Szczawnica i o k B s y WodaW as olistoliths PIENINY KLIPPENc BELTl r je e a i a a un t D GGrajcarek SSielski n n rajca b’ SStary r re a e Sub-Pieniny Nappe k z Niedzica p CzarnaC a northern boundary Pieniny Mts. p (Czorsztyn Nappe s.l.) d i x o l ofŠš ari melanges Jaworki WodaW K ła a Pieniny Nappe s.. l =Kraków-Myszków Fault Zone y Niedzica andCzertezik succession ia i ln BBiał X cross-section o n Podhale Fault zt i Branisko and Pieniny succession SSztolnia ajec n in Figs 5 and 6 Peri-PieninyP Flexureun e X' eri-P D i Haligovce Unit ien P iny F x’ lexu re Dunaje M b ałe Haligovce P Medvelica a ien Podhale Faultin Fakľovka rad y M c RRi Pop T ts i Litmanová e eissey c Fault . a KMFZ Peri-PieninP č e kk ri VeľkýV Lipn N - a Cracow Lviv Pie e SLOVAKIA Bohemian re- n K ľ in a k MalýMal Pop foredee Tornquis y Flexurmmie ýL Massif U Fl i MFZ rn Carpathian ex e nkan quarry te s u k i Brno s re a ý We p n L Kremna rad Fa p í ii t Fault zone CENTRAL pn k í CARPATHIAN k Kamienka Vienna PALEOGENE ult Jarabina Ľubovnianska Vrchov Vabec Fault Eastern Alpine-Carpathians area European Plate area Alps Budapest High Matysova Plio-Pleistocene basalts Neogene n land lato Neogene Ca volcanics Cretaceous Ba r Pannonian Podsadok ina ke e Transyl- a v Neogene molase zone L i Basin Jurassic Drava R vanian Paleogene-Neogene sediments StarStará e Triassic r Basin Chmelnica b River e Údol u ĽĽubovňaubovňa Hajtovka v i n Alpine-Carpathians flysh belt Permian volcanics a R D a Pieniny Klippen Belt Carboniferous z s i Inner Alpine-Carpathians Devonian T rpathians belt and Dinarides deep fracture zone study area Dinarides Southern Ca 0 5km Belgrade 100 km Fig. 1 a Main tectonic units of the Alpine–Carpathian–Pannonian L’ubovnianska Vrchovina Highland, based on Birkenmajer (1979), orogenic belt and the location of the study area; after Embey-Isztin Jurewicz (1994), Plasˇienka (2012), but simplified and modified. et al. (1993) and Kova´cˇ and Ma´rton (1998), simplified by Jurewicz Traces of sections presented in Fig. 4 and Online Resource 3 are (2005). b Geological sketch-map of the Małe Pieniny Mts. and the indicated 2008). This impact can be observed both in terms of stages the Magura Nappe. If correct, the idea of the PKB up to during sedimentation and deformation. date conceived as a semi-vertical and deep-rooted struc- The Grajcarek Unit was first defined by Birkenmajer ture, would cease to exist. One of the aims of this paper is (1970, 1977, 1986) as a Peri-Klippen part of the Magura to re-examine these different models and to propose a new Basin deposits, which was back thrusted over the nappes of model for the evolution of the Klippen Belt whereby the the Klippen Belt thereby becoming part of the PKB, Grajcarek Unit is taken as a part of the Sˇarisˇ Transitional forming tectonic caps. These caps formed during the Zone representing a transitional zone between the PKB and Maastrichtian-Paleocene (‘‘Laramian’’) phase after inte- the Other Carpathians. In the following the name ‘‘Graj- gration of the PKB into the accretionary prism. In contrast, carek’’ will be reserved to the lithostratigraphic succession Jurewicz (1994, 1997) postulated that during the last phase of the Grajcarek Basin (Birkenmajer and Gedl 2017), of nappe thrusting affecting the PKB the klippen units which existed during Jurassic and Early Cretaceous times moved northward over the Magura foreland forming as the most southern (Peri-Klippen) part of the Magura mostly gravitationally driven folds and thrusts. As a con- Basin. sequence the ‘‘Grajcarek Unit’’, now crops out in tectonic Moving from west to east along the Polish/Slovakian windows. This unit, transitional in character, consists of border, i.e. from the Pieniny Mts. through the Małe Pieniny strongly deformed slices composed of Jurassic-Cretaceous Mts. to the L’ubovnianska Vrchovina Highland (Fig. 1b), sediments associated with synorogenic wild-flysch, breccia there is a gradual change in both the PKB structure and its type sediments and numerous olistoliths. According to relation to the Magura Nappe. One reason for this change Plasˇienka (2012a), a unit he called Sˇarisˇ Unit forms the could be caused by the influence of structures present in the lowermost unit of the PKB. It formed due to repeated Carpathian basement, i.e. the North-European Platform gravity slides continuing episodically until to the Early below the Outer Carpathians. During the last stage of the Eocene. The question became more confusing after Oszc- Carpathian orogeny this plate was forced below the nascent zypko and Oszczypko-Clowes (2010, 2014) documented orogen, undercutting and underplating the PKB. However, Miocene sediments (Kremna Formation) inside the PKB. thereby the platform did not behave like a monolithic rigid On the basis of this observation they proposed that the block but was cut by a number of faults. These faults, deep- nappes of the PKB were thrust together with what he called rooted fracture zones, played a key role for the lateral Grajcarek Unit along a flat-lying thrust onto the Miocene of variations of deformation style and, consequently, the Šariš Zone between Pieniny Klippen Belt and Outer Carpathians 247 geological structure of the PKB. These faults are generally Zone B: Pieniny lithostratigraphic unit s.l., subdivided parallel to the Teisseyre-Tornquist Zone (e.g.