Krzysztof Szopa

• PhD
• Professor (Associate) at University of Silesia in Katowice

This work reports the first data on the Variscan metamorphic evolution of the Marmarosh/Maramuresh massif in the Outer Eastern Carpathians. Geothermobarometry determinations coupled with U-Th-Pb dating of monazite, apatite, titanite and rutile were used to construct P-T-t paths and refine the geodynamic evolution of the pre-Alpine crystalline basem...

The Archean Bahalda Pluton (Singhbhum Craton, eastern India) is an I-type mafic granodiorite, surrounded by Paleoarchean TTG and TTG-derived granites of the Singhbhum Suite. The Singhbhum Suite is highly unusual amongst Eo-and Paleo-Archean terranes because most of the Singhbhum Craton escaped post-Archean deformation and metamorphism. The Bahalda...

Trees contribute to bedrock weathering in a variety of ways. However, evaluating their full impact is complicated by a lack of direct observation of unexposed root systems of individual trees, especially when the scale of the analysis goes down to the level of microbiomes. In the present study, we investigated the contribution of tree root systems...

This study aimed at determining the concentration and possibility of migration of potentially harmful elements (PHEs) in soils and mining and metallurgical waste in the Silesian-Cracow region. Our research was carried out in selected locations of Ruda Śląska, Świętochłowice, Bytom, and in the Olkusz region (Bukowno) in southern Poland. The concentr...

Rock weathering drives both landform formation and soil production/evolution. The less studied biological component of weathering and soil production caused by tree root systems is the main focus of the present study. Weathering by trees, which likely has been important in soil formation since the first trees emerged in the middle and late Devonian...

Human–environment interactions relating to changes in the hydrological system of the Upper Vistula valley are poorly understood. This valley lies in the foreland of the Transcarpathian transition, an area in Central Europe, which is crucial for the migration of people. Using palaeobotanical and geochemical analyses, archaeological data, and data on...

The flysch rocks of the Istebna Formation (Jasnowice Sandstone Member), Silesian Nappe, contain exotic blocks and detrital material from the Protocarpathian basement. Granitoid clasts in the upper part of the profile yielded the Meso-Variscan ages of c. 325.7±2.9 Ma for the sample of KSZ-5 and 330.6±2.9 Ma for KSZ-8, with inherited cores of Neopro...

The pre-Alpine Marmarosh Massif is a tectonically complex unit of the crystalline basement within the Eastern Outer Carpathians. In the eastern (Ukrainian) segment of this massif, two units have been identified-the Bilyi Potok Nappe and the Dilove Nappe. Petrological investigations coupled with zircon U-Pb dating were performed on metavolcanic rock...

The new exposure of the Upper Muschelkalk clays and dolomites located south of Kalety (Tarnogórski District, Silesia, Poland) provided numerous remains of vertebrates represented by teeth, scales, long bones, and coprolites. Despite the influence of hydrothermal processes leading to dolomitization and Zn-Pb deposit formation, the preservation of fo...

The Strandja Zone, straddling the border between Bulgaria and Turkey, is often assigned to either the Balkanide or the Pontide thrust belts of the Alpine orogen in the Black Sea region. Previous studies have considered this zone, which originated on the North Gondwanan margin, as part of a Late Carboniferous to Triassic magmatic arc associated with...

Although Variscan terranes have been documented from the Balkans to the Caucasus, the southeastern portion of the Variscan Belt is not well understood. The Strandja Zone along the border between Bulgaria and Turkey encompasses one such terrane linking the Balkanides and the Pontides. However, the evolution of this terrane, and the Late Carboniferou...

Pre-Mesozoic exotic crystalline blocks within the Outer Carpathian flysch have potential to unravel the nature of their eroded basement source(s) and to reconstruct the Paleozoic–Precambrian history of the Protocarpathians. Strongly tectonized Campanian–Maastrichtian grey marls in the Subsilesian Nappe of the Outer Western Carpathians in Poland con...

The chalcocite group minerals are widely distributed among different hydrothermally affected rocks, the oxidized zone of copper sulfide deposits, or may be even crystalline from supersaturated volcanic gases. Some of the chalcocite group minerals form the main Cu orebodies. Djurleite (Cu31S16) is a rare member of the chalcocite group, with a very c...

Exotic crystalline blocks within the Outer Carpathian flysch have the potential to establish the nature of their eroded basement source(s) and thus to reconstruct the paleogeography of the Outer Carpathians. Petrological investigations (including mineral analyses) coupled with zircon and apatite U-Pb dating were performed on an exotic crystalline b...

Ancylite-(Ce) oc curs in quartz-cal cite-chlorite veins cross cut ting the fo li a tion of phyllite in the Dewon Quarry in the foot hills of the Opava Moun tains of the east ern Sudetes, south-west Po land. Ir reg u larly shaped grains of ancylite are up to 67 mm long and 22 mm wide. The compositional range of ancylite, de ter mined by elec tron mi...

Southeastern Bulgaria is composed of a variety of rocks from pre-Variscan (ca. 0.3 Ga) to pre-Alpine sensu lato (ca. 0.15 Ga) time. The Sakar Unit in this region comprises a series of granitoids and gneisses formed or metamorphosed during these events. It is cut by a series of post-Variscan hydrothermal veins, yet lacks pervasive Alpine deformation...

Peat sediments represent important environmental and climatic archives, as well as recording information on the processes affecting the formation of these deposits; combined these data can be used for paleoreconstruction of peat-bogs. In this paper we characterize heavy mineral-rich sandy layers from two peat-bog sites in Mizerów and Strumień (Pola...

M. 2019. Continuous magma mixing and cumulate separation in the High Tatra Mountains open system granitoid intrusion, Western Carpathians (Poland/Slovakia): a textural and geochemical study. Acta Geologica Polonica, 69 (x), xxx-xxx. Warszawa. In this study the formation of the polygenetic High Tatra granitoid magma is discussed. Felsic and mafic ma...

The aim of this study was to identify and characterise sedimentological evidence of the functioning of historical metallurgy at the chosen areas of river valleys near the former ironworks in Brusiek (Mała Panew River Valley) and Białogon (Bobrza River Valley). An interdisciplinary approach was employed, using a wide range of methods. In the first s...

The Zagros Orogen formed during the Cenozoic collision of Arabia with Eurasia and resulted in the closure of the Neo-Tethys Ocean. Collision was preceded by a complicated tectonic history involving Pan-African orogenesis, Late Palaeozoic rifting and the formation of Neo-Tethys, and subsequent Mesozoic convergence on the northern margin of the ocean...

Crystalline exotic boulders within the sedimentary sequences of the Outer Carpathians likely represent Proto-Carpathian basement, which was exposed and eroded during the Mesozoic and Cenozoic evolution of the Western Carpathian basin. The majority of the boulders were derived from the Silesian Ridge, which separated the Magura Basin and the Silesia...

The paleogeographic configuration of the Carpathian Tethys changed during its evolution. It consisted of more or less individual basinal units, which arrangement and configuration evolved during Jurassic-Neogene times. These basins were separated by several ridges including the Silesian Ridge, a crucial structure that functioned over one hundred mi...

The paleogeographic configuration of the Carpathian Tethys changed during its evolution. It consisted of more or less individual basinal units, which arrangement and configuration evolved during Jurassic-Neogene times. These basins were separated by several ridges including the Silesian Ridge, a crucial structure that functioned over one hundred mi...

The Nain Complex of coastal Labrador comprises Neoarchean amphibolite to granulite-facies gneisses that include among the protoliths some of the oldest tonalite-trondjemite-granodiorite (TTG) crust preserved on Earth. Samples of orthogneiss and pelitic paragneiss on a 70km north-south coastal traverse, from Ramah Bay, Saglek Bay and Hebron Fjord we...

olistostrome is a part of the Cretaceous-Paleogene flysch of the Magura Basin (Cieszkowki et al, 2017). The exotics were redeposited from the Silesian Ridge, which separated Outer Carpathian Tethyan basin during Jurasic-Paleogene times. The exotics were represented by magmatic and metamorphic rocks are the remnants of the Precambrian-Paleozoic Pro...

The original material coming from the Carpathian basement plays a key role in the paleotectonic reconstructions of the Protocarpathians. The Carpathian Tethys domain developed on the Paleozoic and/or Precambrian basement during Mesozoic and Cenozoic times. The large fragments of this basement are exposed within the Marmarosh Ridge in the Easter Car...

LA-ICP-MS U-Pb dating of apatite, titanite and zircon from the metamorphic cover of the Western Tatra granite was undertaken to constrain the timing of metamorphic events related to the final stages of Variscan orogenesis and subsequent post-orogenic exhumation. Zircon was found only in one sample from the northern metamorphic envelope. U-Pb ages f...

The Saglek Block of coastal Labrador forms the western margin of the North Atlantic Craton, where Archean gneisses and granulites have been reworked during the Paleoproterozoic. Previous work has established that the block is a composite of Eoarchean to Mesoarchean protoliths metamorphosed to upper amphibolite and granulite facies at around 2.8-2.7...

Paleometeorites are extremely rare finds in geological sediment record. Described here fosill remnants of meteorite are probably the first finding of extra-terrestrial iron connected with the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary. The total mass of the meteorite is 1.8181 g and it is represented by 19 fragments and dust. Geochemical and petrographic analys...

Monazite is an anhydrous phosphate of rare earth elements (REE), mostly cerium (CePO4). It is ideal for U–Pb geochronology due to the relatively high U, Th and radiogenic Pb contents, and the extremely low Pb diffusivity. Although several reference monazites are currently available, the recent increasing interest in monazite geochronology makes it...

Monazite group minerals are orthophosphates with a general chemical formulae MXO 4 , where M = Ca, LREE, Th, U, and X = As, P, Si. They are accessories in numerous igneous and metamorphic rocks. Upon weathering of those rocks resistant monazite is concentrated as a detrital fraction in soils and sediments. Due to high concentrations of U (hundreds...

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 Vistul...

The crystalline basement of the Tatra Mountains in the Central Western Carpathians, forms part of the European Variscides and contains fragments of Gondwanan provenance. Metabasite rocks of MORB affinity in the Tatra Mountains are represented by two suites of amphibolites present in two metamorphic units (the Ornak and Goryczkowa Units) intercalate...

Abstract–Fossil iron meteorites are extremely rare in the geological sedimentary record. The paleometeorite described here is the first such finding at the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary. In the boundary clay from the outcrop at the Lechówka quarry (Poland), fragments of the paleometeorite were found in the bottom part of the host layer. The...

On the southeastern slope of the Baranec Mount in the Western Tatra Mountains (Slovakia) an apatite-rich pegmatite-like segregation was found in the subvertical fault zone cutting metapelitic rocks. Two zones: felsic (F) and mafic (M) were found, differing in mineral assemblages and consequently in chemistry. Fluorapatite crystals yield a LA-ICP-MS...

Environmental adaptation of molluscs during evolution has led to form biomineral exoskeleton – shell. The main compound of their shells is calcium carbonate, which is represented by calcite and/or aragonite. The mineral part, together with the biopolymer matrix, forms many types of microstructures, which are differ in texture. Different types of in...

Living organisms frequently reflect the deterioration scale of the environment in which they occur. Freshwater mollusks have long been the subject of ecotoxicology and environmental monitoring studies, mainly investigating for trace metal concentrations in their soft tissues. There are also some reports mollusks' shells are probably able to bioaccu...

The Cretaceous Period (145–66 Ma) consisted of several oceanic anoxic events (120–80 Ma), stimulated by global greenhouse effects. The Oceanic Anoxic Event 2 (OAE2) occurred worldwide from the late Cenomanian to the early-middle Turonian, causing a significant faunal turnover, mostly in marine biota, pushing some species to the brink of extinction....

Neptunian dikes, representing deposit-filling fractures in older rocks, have long attracted the attention of paleontologists because they may provide unique insights into ancient cryptic submarine cave ecosystems. In the epicratonic Poland, fossil-bearing neptunian dikes are especially well known in Upper Jurassic (mainly Oxfordian) strata. However...

Four newly discovered moldavites from the East and West Gozdnica pits, SW Poland, are characterized. All specimens, including other four, reported earlier, are from Upper Miocene fluvial sediments of the Gozdnica Formation. Their weight varies between 0.529 and 1.196 g. The moldavites are bottle green in colour and have bubbles and inclusions of le...

Shelly fauna was exposed to increased pressure exerted by shell-crushing durophagous predators during the so-called Mesozoic Marine Revolution that was initiated in the Triassic. As a result of evolutionary ‘arms race’, prey animals such as bivalves, developed many adaptations to reduce predation pressure (e.g. they changed lifestyle and shell morp...

The Cretaceous period consists of many Oceanic Anoxic Events, likely stimulated by global greenhouse effect. The so-called Oceanic Anoxic Event 2 (OAE2) had occurred worldwide from the Late Cenomanian up to the Early-Middle Turonian, causing a significant faunal turnover in marine biota pushing some species to the brink of extinction. It has been a...

Neptunian dikes are formed by sediment filling fissures exposed to the seafloor. They may provide unique insights into fauna inhabiting submarine crytpic cave paleoenvironments. In the epicratonic Poland, neptunian dikes are especially well known in the Upper Jurassic (mainly Oxfordian) strata. However, the age, origin and faunal composition of the...

Peat bog deposits provide a very important record of past environmental conditions, preserving biotic and abiotic processes that occurred in the vicinity of the bog. In this study, we examined three peat bog profiles from Kietrz, located in the micro-region of the Głubczycki Plateau, southern Poland. The objective of this study was to determine the...

The Tatra granitoid pluton (Central Western Carpathians, Poland/Slovakia) is an example of a composite polygenetic intrusion, comprising many magmatic pulses varying compositionally from diorite to granite and intruding the active Variscan shear zone. In this study, zircon U-Pb ages were used to trace the magmatic processes and to construct the geo...

Shell is a biomineral structure occurring in the Mollusca and Brachiopoda groups which has developed as a result of the so-called 'arms race'. It is a product of mantle (pallium), and is composed mainly of calcium carbonate (in the form of calcite and/or aragonite) constituting at least 95% of its weight, and of various biopolymer compounds forming...

The Palabora Complex in the Limpopo Province of South Africa, which intruded into Archean granite basement, is the only carbonatite complex hosting a primary Cu and a phosphate deposit. Thermochronological studies using apatite, in addition to the existing U-Pb zircon and baddeleite ages, complement the petrogenetic investigation of the Phalaborwa...

Tertiary ObereSüβwasser Molasse during the NördlingerRies impact in Germany (Řanda et al. 2008; Magna et al. 2011; Žák et al. 2012). Tektites ejected during the Ries event had been discovered from three substrewn fields in the Czech Republic, Germany, Austria (Trnka, Houzar 2002 and references cited therein) and in southwestern Poland (Brachaniec e...

Apatite is a common accessory mineral in magmatic and metamorphic rocks which recently has been used in high-temperature thermochronological studies. The closure temperature of the U-Pb system in apatite is 350-550ºC (Schoene, Bowring 2007) while that of titanite is 660-700ºC (Scott, St-Onge 1995) making both minerals useful phases to constrain the...

Two samples of metallurgical slag (LSW and LST) were investigated after 11 years exposure in lysimeters. Both originate from the Katowice steelworks which is one of the biggest iron producers in Poland. The samples were collected from the Lipówka landfill in Strzemieszyce. Slags are deposited there in 1985. They cover an area of 45 hectares. The ex...

Peats as biogenic sediments are one of the most heterogeneous deposits due to their physical and chemical properties. The study focused on mineral distribution in selected peat profiles, a feature which depends on many geochemical factors. The sampling area is the peat bog in Kietrz in southern Poland (50˚04'37.2 " N, 18˚02'44 " E), in the mesoregi...

regions. In the Bardo syncline (the Kielce region), diabases were examined at the Bardo, Kędziorka, Widełki, Zbelutka, Zagórze and Zalesie localities. The thin (≤ 16 m) sill near Zalesie village (Kardymowicz 1957) shows the smallest grain size when compared to the others. Samples from its central parts comprise ophitic clusters of plagioclase and p...

The Bukowa Góra quarry is located in the NW part of the Łysogóry Block of the Holy Cross Mountains. The lower part of the Bukowa Góra section belongs to the middle and upper part of the Zagórze Formation. The upper part of the section comprises sediments of the Grzegorzowice Formation with three units: Bukowa Góra, Kapkazy and Zachełmie Members. Th...

In the Tatra Mountains (Slovakia) metamorphic complex, kyanite-quartz segregations with biotite-rich selvage occur in mylonitized mica schists. In this paper, the problem of fluid flow and aluminium mobility during the uplift of the crystalline massif, and the position of the segregations in the history of Western Tatra metamorphic complex, is adre...

Moldavites represent tektites derived from the Ries impact structure (~24 km diameter, ~15 Myr old) in southern Germany. Two new localities with parautochthonous moldavites in southwestern Poland were found. In these localities, fluvial sediments of the so-called Gozdnicka formation host the moldavites. Characteristic tektite features, especially b...

The Tatra granitoid pluton (Central Western Carpathians, Poland/Slovakia) is an example of composite polygenetic intrusion, comprising many magmatic pulses varying compositionally from diorite to granite. The U–Pb LA-MC-ICP-MS zircon dating of successive magma batches indicates the presence of magmatic episodes at 370–368, 365, 360, 355 and 350–340...

Wastes accumulated at Piekary Śląskie, Poland, are the result of 150 years of continuous working of the Orzeł Biały smelting plant. Slags are composed of: oxides (spinel, hematite, zincite); silicates and aluminosilicates (olivine, monticellite–kirschteinite, titanite, merwinite, pyroxene, melilite, feldspars: plagioclases and plumbean K-feldspar,...

In this paper, detrital minerals (light and heavy) from the Štramberk Limestone in the Czech Republic are described for the first time. The identified minerals are quartz, hematite, goethite, apatite, monazite, zircon, pyroxene, chlorite, kyanite(?) and zircon. Most are minerals from igneous rocks. CHIME age determinations on a monazite grain give...

This study presents apatite LA-ICP-MS U-Pb age and trace elements concentrations data from different granite types from the Tatra Mountains, Poland. Apatite from monazite and xenotime-bearing High Tatra granite was dated at 339 ± 5 Ma. The apatite LREE patterns reflect two types of magmas that contributed to this layered magma series. Apatite from...

Well-preserved coprolite located inside concretion has been found and described for the first time from the Carboniferous sediments of Upper Silesia, Sosnowiec-Zagórze, Poland. XRD and SEM analyses revealed that the concretion is mostly composed of siderite, apatite and goethite, with only small admixtures of quartz, mica, sphalerite, pyrite and ka...

Slag dumps are common in Upper Silesia landscape. Studied wastes from Katowice – Piekary Śląskie sites are a result of continuous ore smelting, waste storage and weathering for about 150 years. As a result we observe large variety of secondary phases, mostly in specific localization within slag dump, related to fresh exposure of material, but shelt...

Exploitation on Zn-Pb ores in Upper Silesia region dates back to the XIII century. Analyzed slags are associated with Hohenlohe smelting plant which started its work in 1804 as an iron smelter, and continued as zinc smelter since 1873. Waste material from smelting plant production was stored in Katowice - Wełnowiec, although nowadays most of it has...

The main products of volcanic activity in the teschenite-picrite association (TPA) are shallow, sub-volcanic intrusions, which predominate over extrusive volcanic rocks. They comprise a wide range of intrusive rocks which fall into two main groups: alkaline (teschenite, picrite, syenite, lamprophyre) and subalkaline (dolerite). Previous 40 Ar/ 39 A...

Large crystals of kyanite (< 15 cm in size) occur in quartz segregation in Paleozoic gneisses on Baranec Mount, Western Tatra Mountains, northern Slovakia. Blue kyanite crystals coexist with quartz and plagioclase. The kyanite contain inclusions of apatite, monazite, garnet, rutile and biotite and overgrowths of retrograde sillimanite, muscovite an...

We report the first occurrence of moldavites in Poland. This discovery confirms the hypothesis that moldavites could have been distributed up to 500 km from the Ries crater in Germany. The tektites were reworked from Middle Miocene sediments and redeposited in Late Miocene (Pannonian) fluvial deposits of the Gozdnicka Formation in Lower Silesia. Th...

The succession of the Lechówka section near Chełm in south-eastern Poland presents the first complete record of the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary in Poland. Samples of the boundary clay were examined for microtektites and shocked minerals to confirm the impact origin of the sediment. The spheroidal fraction reveals morphological and mineralo...

In Lower Silesia, the first Polish moldavites were discovered. To recognize the primary chemical composition and check the mor-phology of investigated material SE and BSE images were used. The samples show presence of vesicles, which are one of the most typical features of tektite glass. Referring to the pre-liminary EDS results and comparing them...

In the bottom part of the tongue-shaped, layered granitoid intrusion, exposed in the Western Tatra Mts., apatite-rich granitic rocks occur as pseudo-layers and pockets between I-type hybrid mafic precursors and homogeneous S-type felsic granitoids. The apatite-rich rocks are peraluminous (ASI = 1.12–1.61), with P2O5 contents ranging from 0.05 to 3....

The mining town of Røros located in central Norway was established in 1644 and it is known of historical mining industry related to copper. Røros was designated as an UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980 on the base of mining culture represented by, e.g., unique wooden architecture. Slag pieces are composed of three parts differing in glass to crysta...

On the are of the Cieszyn magma province, igneous rocks appear mostly as a bodies, emplaced in mechanically weakened zones in Createous sediments. The main products of the volcanic activity are sills, represented by: picrite, picroteschenite, teschenite, syenite and lamprophyre. Previous 40 Ar/ 39 Ar dating of amphiboles (ca. 120 Ma; Lucińska-Anczk...

This study presents results of SEM and XRD investigation of products formed after La-rich bentonite application into water containing PO 4 3-and CO 3 2-ions. The main product of the investigated reaction with phosphate and carbonate ani-ons is rabdophane-(La) and lanthanite-(La), respectively. Studied material has adaptation in many water reservoir...

The High Tatra granite intrusion is an example of a Variscan syn-tectonic, tongue-shaped intrusion. In some portions of the intrusion, structures occur which appear to be of sedimentary origin. These include structures similar to graded bedding, cross-bedding, troughs and flame structures, K-feldspar-rich cumulates and magmatic breccias. Formation...