Grzegorz Racki

University of Silesia in Katowice · Faculty of Natural Sciences

The interesting report by Ellwood et al . ([ 1 ] demonstrated the applicability of magnetic susceptibility field methods to the identification of distal impact deposits. However, the evidence that they have presented for a bolide impact during the Middle Devonian, immediately preceding the Eifelian-Givetian (E-G) stage boundary at 380 milion years...

Mass extinction events are considered herein to be: (1) biodiversity crises, determined primarily by significantly increased extinction rates, and (2) ecological (or biotic) crises, when the ecosystem consequences of the biospheric perturbation were disproportionately large when compared to the protracted/stepwise biodiversity loss alone. Only the...

This volume covers new developments and research on mass extinctions, volcanism, and impacts, ranging from the ancient Central Iapetus magmatic province linked with the Gaskiers glaciation to thermogenic degassing in large igneous provinces, the global mercury enrichment in Valanginian sediments, and the Guerrero-Morelos carbonate platform response...

Flood basalts (traps) and large igneous provinces (LIPs) are essential topics in modern geology. However, little is known about the stages of recognition of particular LIPs, including a giant continental LIP in Siberia. Even though basalt occurrences were reported from the region from the end of the 18th century (e.g., by Kozitsky, Middendorf, Schm...

Despite several, sometimes prominent propagators, meteorite impact research had a long period of peripheral status until the 1980s. Since then, there has been an intense search for impact-extinction pairs, driven by the rapid acceptance of Alvarez’s hypothesis of a catastrophic Chicxulub impact at the end of the Mesozoic era. However, substantial...

Regularly bifurcated tubiform microfossils, although illustrated three decades ago from the Frasnian of the Holy Cross Mts (southern Poland), have not been studied in detail until now. In this paper, the distinctive microproblematic is interpreted as a calcite-cemented agglutinated foraminifer belonging to Devonodendron scopulum sp. et gen. nov., a...

SUBMITTED TO 'EARTH-SCIENCE REVIEWS'. Middle to Late Devonian calcareous microbiota are comprehensively examined from a multidisciplinary perspective. A distinct stratigraphic pattern is well evidenced within the reference bank-to-reef complex on the southern Polish shelf, mainly driven by cyclic eustatic drowning of the carbonate platform. This fa...

SUBMITTED TO "LETHAIA". Enigmatic calcareous tubiform microfossils from the Middle to Upper Devonian, featuring tapered ends and regular spiral-rhomboid ornamentation, have been described as the ‘genus’ Spirotubus. These microfossils from southern Poland exhibit bipolar symmetry in their arched tubes, with no clear distinction between proximal and...

SUBMITTED TO "MARINE MICROPALEONTOLOGY". Regularly bifurcated tubiform (tree-like) microfossils, although illustrated three decades ago from the Frasnian of the Holy Cross Mts (southern Poland), have not been studied in detail until now. In this paper, the distinctive microproblematic is interpreted as a calcite-cemented agglutinated foraminifer be...

The unused Kadzielnia quarry in Kielce is the most publicly known geological site in the Holy Cross Mts and its geotouristic landmark (now the Kadzielnia Park and Reserve). The ‘rocky’ (coral) Kadzielnia Limestone, corresponding to a stromatoporoid-microbial mud mound, now treated as the Kadzielnia Massive Limestone Member of the Kowala Formation,...

SUBMITTED TO "EARTH-SCIENCE REVIEWS". Despite several, sometimes prominent propagators, meteorite impact research had a long period of peripheral status until the 1980s. Since then there has been an intensive search for impact-extinction pairs, promoted by the rapid acceptance in canonical knowledge of Alvarez’s hypothesis of a catastrophic Chicxul...

The well-known fossiliferous and lithologically variable Middle Devonian Shaly-Calcareous Skały Formation in the Łysogóry Region (northern part of the Holy Cross Mountains, central Poland) was studied for the first time in terms of elemental geochemistry, carbon isotope stratigraphy and limestone microfacies. Three Lower to Middle Givetian marly-li...

Evolving tectonic concepts of the Bodzentyn Syncline in the Świętomarz-Śniadka section (Łysogóry Region, Holy Cross Mts), demonstrated by the historical geological cross-sections from 1903 to 2012

The well-known fossiliferous and lithologically variable clay-carbonate series in the Łysogóry Region (northern part of the Holy Cross Mts, central Poland), enclosed between the Middle Devonian Amphipora dolomites and limestones (Kowala Formation) and siliciclastics (Świętomarz Beds), is defined formally as the Shaly- Calcareous Skały Formation. Th...

The palaeoecology of fossiliferous shales, belonging to the upper part of the Dobruchna Brachiopod Shale Member (= set XIV) of the Skały Formation (northern Holy Cross Mountains), was studied quantitatively in a succession in the transient (1989) trench A, 5.6 m thick, near the village of Skały. The top-Eifelian strata , recording the carbonate cri...

The middle and upper parts of the Skały Fm, Early to Middle Givetian in age, were investigated in four sections at Miłoszów Wood in the Łysogóry Region (northern region of the Holy Cross Mountains, central Poland). The dating is based on conodonts (Polygnathus timorensis Zone to the later part of the Polygnathus varcus/Polygnathus rhenanus Zone; ea...

A tephra-rich cherty-clayey Famennian succession within the major Brzeźnica olistostrome in the Bardo Mountains, Central Sudetes, SW Poland, preserves a record of the lost ocean later incorporated into the Variscan orogenic belt. Fluctuating but mostly oligotrophic regimes and low primary production levels were influenced by weak upwelling below th...

Mercury (Hg) concentrations and isotopes are widely used as proxies for volcanic inputs to paleode-positional systems. Enhanced volcanism during the Late Devonian was previously mainly inferred in the western Paleo-Tethys Ocean region from high Hg enrichments around the Upper Kellwasser horizon (UKW) and Frasnian-Famennian Boundary (FFB). In this s...

An explanation of the changed Figure 1 in an article on the unknown German pioneers of the impact hypothesis from the 1850s.

Geochemical database for article "A waning Saxothuringian Ocean evidenced in the Famennian tephra-bearing biosiliceous succession of Bardo Unit (Central Sudetes, SW Poland)."

POLITYKA nr 39 (3331), 69-71. Jak zapomniany polski zesłaniec, Aleksander Czekanowski, odkrył wulkaniczne pozostałości największej katastrofy w dziejach Ziemi - trapy syberyjskie.

Mostly Russian source historical papers to article: The discovery of the Siberian Traps Large Igneous Province in 1870s, and the leading role of Aleksander Czekanowski.

The Late Devonian mass extinction, which occurred 371.9 million years ago (Ma), is one of the ‘Big Five’ mass extinctions in Earth history. Suggested main proximate causes of the crisis include oceanic anoxia and climate swings. The severe loss of biodiversity affected both marine and terrestrial ecosystems and animal (especially metazoan reefs) an...

FORUM AKADEMICKIE nr 4/2001. Niska ranga punktowa i ograniczenie punktowania monografii polskich autorów do 728 wydawnictw są poważnymi wadami obecnej ewaluacji dorobku publikacyjnego jednostek naukowych. Szczególnej dyskryminacji podlegają monografie w dziedzinach nauk przyrodniczych i ścisłych. W artykule zaproponowano rozwiązania w kierunku zaró...

A polemic with the proposal of Marshall et al. that the locally abundant malformed plant spores at the D-C boundary are associated with increased UV-B radiation, indicating an ozone hole caused by unexpectedly harmful climate warming (but without any volcanic stimulus!). As an alternative to this time-specific model, complex aspects of the volcanic...

Historical papers related to two forgotten German pioneers of meteorite impact theory from the 1850s.

The mid-nineteenth century is not regarded as the time when the theory of extraterrestrial catastrophism developed. However, two German scholars independently introduced original concepts of terrestrial impacts of large celestial bodies at that time. Ludwig Pfeil (1803-1896), a self-educated wealthy landowner, and Karl Reichenbach (1788-1869), an e...

Changes in the climate-sensitive carbon cycle during the major and second-order Late Devonian global events were more complex than usually expected, i.e., they were not characterized only by positive δ13Ccarb and δ13Corg excursions up to 5.5%. In fact, the carbon (and oxygen) isotope signatures in lime mudstones are less susceptible to diagenetic b...

Primary source papers to article on the Öpik's (1916) theory of impact cratering, including also works of Morozov and related Russian polemical notes.

In: Stratigraphy & Timescales, Volume 5, 2020. Changes in the climate-sensitive carbon cycle during the major and second-order Late Devonian global events were more complex than usually expected, i.e., they were not characterized only by positive δ¹³Ccarb and δ¹³Corg excursions up to 5.5‰. In fact, the carbon (and oxygen) isotope signatures in lim...

EDITORIAL: The special volume of 'Global and Planetary Change' is dedicated to studies of 'Devonian global changes'. The 12 articles add much data to our knowledge of this eventful Middle Palaeozoic interval. In particular, the diversity of elemental and C-isotope geochemical signatures of two major biotic crises: the Frasnian-Famennian and Devonia...

A positive carbon stable isotope excursion of about 3‰ is documented in the topmost lower Frasnian at Padberg, eastern Rhenish Massif, as a muted record of the worldwide early−middle Frasnian isotopic perturbation (punctata Event; up to 6–8‰ shift in both δ¹³Ccarb and δ¹³Corg elsewhere), comparable with the Appalachian δ¹³C curve. This German isoto...

Dicynodont therapsids are prominent elements of Triassic continental faunas, but the date of their demise is controversial, linked either to end-Carnian faunal turnover or to end-Triassic mass extinction. The second timing is based on a unique, giant dicynodont-theropod dinosaur fauna from Lipie Śląskie, Poland, thought to be Rhaetian in age, due t...

Although the prime causation of the Late Devonian Frasnian–Famennian (F–F) mass extinction remains conjectural, such destructive factors as the spread of anoxia and rapid upheavals in the runaway greenhouse climate are generally accepted in the Earth-bound multicausal scenario. In terms of prime triggers of these global changes, volcanism paroxysm...

Two studied sections of the Frasnian-Famennian (F-F) boundary beds in western Thailand differ significantly in their depositional and geochemical characteristics. The highly condensed, monotonous Mae Sariang (MS) limestone succession generally corresponds to the event-chemostratigraphic pattern of the F-F biocrisis based primarily on German section...

Historical source literature to paper on Franz von Paula Gruithuisen, the first proponent of an impact cratering of the Moon in the 1820s

Flood basalts (traps) and large igneous provinces (LIPs) belong to the hot topics of modern geology, especially due to their causal links with major evolutionary crises and global catastrophes. However, the history of views on volcanic cataclysms, as well as the recognition stages of particular LIPs are still little known. Surprisingly , Polish con...

CHAPTER ACCEPTED TO '"ENCYCLOPEDIA OF GEOLOGY", 2 ed., Elsevier, 2020. Mass extinction events are considered to be: (1) biodiversity crises, determined primarily by significantly increased extinction rates, and (2) ecological (or biotic) crises, when the ecosystem consequences of the biospheric perturbation were disproportionately large when compar...

W związku z głośnym odkryciem późnotriasowych szczątków kostnych w Krasiejowie k/Opola, Koło Naukowe Paleontologów „Paradoxides” i Katedra Stratygrafii Ekosystemowej Uniwersytetu Śląskiego zorganizowały 21 marca 2003 r. sesję popularno-naukową. Sukces tej studenckiej inicjatywy sprawił, iż od tej pory tematyka szeroko rozumianych śląskich „dinozaur...

Source papers to unknown history of initial study of the Meteor Crater in Arizona (1896-1906).

Ashua Formation was deposited in Coniacian-Early Santonian time near shore of a shallow sea and in a plethora of continental arid environments. Its main component is fine-grained siliciclastic material forming lithic and subordinate arkosic graywackes. Limestones are frequent in the lower member, and in the upper one gypsum and halite are present....

Anomalously high rates of continental weathering have frequently been proposed as a key stimulus for the development of widespread marine anoxia during a number of Late Devonian environmental and biospheric crises, which included a major mass extinction during the Frasnian–Famennian transition (marked by the Upper and Lower Kellwasser horizons). He...

Franz von Paula Gruithuisen (1774-1852), the Bavarian medic, physician and astronomer, enfant terrible of German science, is known for his insightful observations and many extravagant conceptions. However, since the seminal monograph of Baldwin (1949), he is also referenced for early contributions to the meteoritic origin concept of lunar craters....

In the history of the study of Meteor Crater, there is an interlude between its initial geologic exploration in early 1890s (finalized by the seminal publication of the volcanic model by Gilbert in 1896) and the spectacular research prospective activity of Barringer, completed with a meteoritic concept published in 1905. Here it is shown that the p...

Elemental geochemistry dataset for two sections studied.

Lecture delivered at the Jagiellonian University

The presence of numerous alkali feldspars in Cretaceous carbonate-evaporitic Ashua Formation, southern Peru, was announced by Ciesielczuk et al. (2016). They occur most frequently in the Ashua limestones of Coniacian – early Santonian age, representing middle to inner carbonate ramp facies. Their frequency depends, however, on the distance from a d...

Most important historical sources to the article on Estonian contribution to knowledge on meteorite craters and catastrophic impact scenarios in the early 20th century.

The article comprehensively presents little known Estonian contribution to the recognition of first meteorite impact structures in Europe, related to works of Julius Kaljuvee (Kalkun; 1869–1940) and Ivan Reinwald (Reinwaldt; 1878–1941). As an active educator specialized in geoscience, Kaljuvee was the first to hypothesize in 1922 that Kaali lake ci...

Historical Dutch papers on Meteor Crater, as a source to article on Mulder's 1911 contribution.

Following the first scientific descriptions in the late nineteenth century, the origin of the curious structure currently known as Meteor Crater (or Barringer Crater) in Arizona (USA) remained controversial until well into the twentieth century. Within the context of commercial mining, Daniel Moreau Barringer’s view that it recorded a substratum-pe...

Marten Edsge Mulder, Dutch professor of medicine, advanced, in an ignored 1911 paper written in Dutch, a novel model of an explosive meteorite. Mulder concluded that only a limited (if any) primary mass of iron-nickel would have been preserved at Meteor Crater, and he predicted bankruptcy of ongoing mining business.

Mercury geochemistry is emerging recently as a hot topic in chemostratigraphical and facies research, owing to the diagnostic character of Hg enrichments as a proxy of volcanic activity (crucial in the context of assumed causal links between volcanic cataclysms and mass extinctions). Thus, as a prerequisite to such far-reaching interpretations, rel...

The Frasnian-Famennian (F-F) global event, one of the five largest biotic crises of the Phanerozoic, has been inconclusively linked to rapid climatic perturbations promoted in turn by volcanic cataclysm, especially in the Viluy large igneous province (LIP) of Siberia. Conversely, the triggers of four other Phanerozoic mass extinction intervals have...

The great palaeontological achievements of the Russian scientists Amalitsky and Sobolev, who worked in Russia and Poland at the turn of nineteenth and twentieth centuries, have previously been outlined in detail. However, their original and surprisingly modern concepts of the development of life on earth have received far less attention. Amalitsky...

The 14 samples studied are from carbonate successions across the boundary between the Upper Akbasay and Novchomok formations in the Kule 1 section, and the Yatavluk and Novchomok formations in the Novchomok 22. The investigated material comprised ca. 100 elements attributed to the genera Branmehla, Bispathodus, Palmatolepis, Polygnathus, Protognath...

Comment on “An early Late Triassic long-necked reptile with a bony pectoral shield and gracile appendages” by Jerzy Dzik and Tomasz Sulej

The overlooked geological ideas of Hugo Kołłątaj (1750-1812), who was well known as a progressive Polish Enlightenment statesman and Catholic writer, are here presented. Following the Kościuszko insurrection, he was imprisoned in Olomouc from 1795 to 1802. While there he wrote a great treatise (probably finished in 1807) on the natural setting of t...

The major goal of the project “"The evolution of terrestrial environments of the Upper Silesian Keuper as biotopes of vertebrates"”, granted for Grzegorz Racki by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education (2009–2013), was an exhaustive, integrated study of the bone-enriched middle Keuper interval in terms of stratigraphy, sedimentology, mineralo...

Authigenic feldspars seem to be frequent in Ashua limestones of different stratigraphic position. In this preliminary study only the most euhedral grains (0.1-0.5 mm) from a site adjacent to a dacite stock were studied in detail. They are of albitic composition with few percent anorthite, randomly distributed within the coarse-grained limestone com...

Authigenic feldspars seem to be frequent in Ashua limestones of different stratigraphic position. In this preliminary study only the most euhedral grains (0.1-0.5 mm) from a site adjacent to a dacite stock were studied in detail. They are of albitic composition with few percent anorthite, randomly distributed within the coarse-grained limestone com...

POSTER

Prezentacja najnowszych wyników nad badaniami stratygrafii kajpru górnośląskiego, w nawiązaniu do polemiki na temat liczby, wieku i środowiska poziomów kościonośnych.

The lower part of the Frasnian succession in the Radlin Syncline (Kielce–Łagów Synclinorium, southern region of the Holy Cross Mountains), in the two studied successions: Józefka at Górno and (for the first time) Radlin, consists of the rhythmic marly Szydłówek Beds, the fossil-rich limestones of the Wietrznia Beds (locally) and the atypically deve...

The list of thirty highest-cited recent Polish publications (after 1995) on diverse themes resulting from study of sedimentary rocks, usually referred to as sedimentary geology, is presented. The progressively successful fields in Polish sedimentary research over the past 20 years include primarily large-scale palaeogeographic and lithofacies analy...

The Frasnian–Famennian (F–F) event may be recognized in various facies areas in South China. In the pelagic cherty basin facies, both Lower and Upper Kellwasser events can seemingly be recognized. In the deeper water carbonate facies, the F–F event level is well controlled in light of conodont biostratigraphy. In the shallow water carbonate and mix...

Overlooked concepts on cyclic biosphere evolution and mass extinctions, proposed by V.P. Amalicki and D.N. Sobolev in 1896 and 1926-1928, respectively, are announced, with stress on recently popular catastrophic scenario of volcanogenic greenhouse.

Conference Presentation

Unique Upper Devonian succession at Kowala Quarry, Holy Cross Mountains, is briefly presented, with focus on global biotic crises record.

At least three widely separated bone-bearing intervals in the Upper Triassic succession of Upper Silesia, ranging in age from the Carnian to Rhaetian (i.e., in the interval of 25 Ma), are presented in papers of the Warsaw research group, led mostly by Jerzy Dzik and/or Grzegorz Niedźwiedzki. The stratigraphic arguments are reviewed for so far studi...

The thematic issue, encompassing 8 articles, written by authors from nine Polish institutions, USA and Germany, is reviewed. This issue presents results of the project “The evolution of terrestrial environments of the Upper Silesian Keuper as biotopes of vertebrates” (N N307 11703) granted for Grzegorz Racki by the Ministry of Science and Higher Ed...

The stratigraphy of the Upper Silesian Keuper, a continental mudstone-dominated is poorly known, although the already renowned, newly-discovered vertebrate localities highlight a growing demand for a more precise intra-regional correlation and an appropriate stratigraphic context. A major lithostratigraphic unit, preliminarily proposed for the midd...

Along with the recent establishment of the Section of History of Geological Sciences in the Polish Geological Society, attention to the need to worldwide promote achievements of Polish geologists through publications in English in international journals is highlighted. A prerequisite to this, however, is an in-depth recognition of our achievements...