Michal Šujan

Nature Research Centre · Laboratory of Quaternary Research

The youngest regional chronostratigraphic unit of the Central Paratethys, the Pannonian Stage, is benchmarked by the deposits of Lake Pannon, containing a highly endemic, Caspian-type biota, and the sediments of adjacent deltas and fluvial plains. The Pannonian Stage also includes various freshwater lake deposits and vast volcanic formations, espec...

Long-term research of the Vienna Basin (Central Europe) has resulted in multiple stratigraphic concepts, though these are at least in part mutually exclusive. This contribution aims to reconsider the available information on the northeastern Vienna Basin, located in Slovakia, to create a consistent stratigraphic model. Lithostratigraphic correlatio...

This review aims to present an updated lithostratigraphic framework of the northern Danube Basin in Slovakia, consistent with recent shifts in geochronology and depositional system redefinitions based on sedimentology and seismic stratigraphy. Several transgressive-regressive sequences are distinguished: Lower Badenian (Middle Miocene), represented...

The first Pannonian Superbasin volume is dedicated to the regional geology of various Neogene extensional basins surrounded by the Alps, Carpathians and Dinarides. All these subbasins developed on highly extended continental crust, providing the locus typicus for the general evolution of extensional basins developed in a back-arc basin setting.

The second Pannonian Super-Basin volume focuses on the geo-energy aspects in separate sections dedicated to geothermal energy, CCUS, hydrogen and natural gas storage and critical mineral exploration. The Pannonian Basin is the hottest sedimentary basin in mainland Europe, providing a useful template for geothermal exploration and utilization projec...

This dataset aims to provide an exhaustive list of publications that have applied authigenic 10Be/9Be dating in geoscience. Some authors refer to this method as dating using meteoric 10Be. As the method is still in development and the number of applications is relatively low (several dozen), this list is of great benefit to all users. The applicati...

Región Podunajská nížina-juhovýchodná časť je zo západu obmedzený spojnicou miest Nové Zámky a Komárno, severným ohraničením je spojnica medzi mestom Nové Zámky a obcou Ipeľský Sokolec. Južné a východné ohraničenie tvorí štátna hranica s Maďarskou republikou, reprezentovaná riekami Dunaj a Ipeľ. Z tohto územia bola zostavená regionálna geologická m...

Epicontinental basins are extremely prone to major paleogeographic changes, and this will directly affect any organic matter (OM) preserved in the depositional record. In this study the Middle-Late Miocene successions in the northern Pannonian Basin System were investigated via sedimentological, petrographic, and geochemical analyses of cores from...

Despite the extensive presence of river terraces in the Central Western Carpathians, geochronological proxies for their formation are scarce, particularly concerning Middle and Lower Pleistocene accumulations. This study employs authigenic 10Be/9Be dating on a Horná Štubňa river terrace outcrop in the southern Turiec Basin, with an expected age of...

The authigenic 10Be/9Be dating method, which is based on atmospheric cosmogenic 10Be and stable 9Be derived from the weathering of rocks, has great potential for dating the sediment deposition within the range of 0.2–14 Ma. However, the different origins of both isotopes lead to paleoenvironmental variations in initial 10Be/9Be ratios, which have n...

Understanding how the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and cryosphere interact requires knowing how ice sheets behaved in the past, which is crucial for accurate climate modeling. However, precise dates for when the European Ice Sheet Complex (EISC) started in the Baltic region are absent, making existing models less reliable. To address this, the 'CosmoLi...

The authigenic 10Be/9Be dating method presents a valuable tool for reconstructing depositional chronologies in sedimentary environments, requiring only ubiquitous mud for sampling. Nevertheless, studies elucidating the variability of the 10Be/9Be record preserved in epicontinental successions are lacking, despite the essential nature of such knowle...

The authigenic 10Be/9Be dating method presents a valuable tool for reconstructing depositional chronologies in sedimentary environments, requiring only ubiquitous mud for sampling. Nevertheless, studies elucidating the variability of the 10Be/9Be record preserved in epicontinental successions are lacking, despite the essential nature of such knowle...

Successions deposited under rifting and post-rift settings of an isolated epicontinental basin often exhibit contrasting characteristics. Facies linked to transgression during basin rifting are typically locally sourced fan deltas transporting coarse-grained sediment, whereas the post-rift setup generally involves a normal regression marked by more...

The data included in this article specify the characteristics of the Upper Miocene fill of the Turiec Basin and served for reconstruction of temporal evolution of depositional systems in this intermontane basin located within the Western Carpathians (Central Europe). The borehole lithological log data were used to describe the stratigraphy of the T...

The depositional record of intermontane basins provides a valuable archive of the temporal evolution of orogenic belts; their common isolated nature may, however, hinder the efficient usage of standard approaches to constrain the age of a basin fill. In this paper the authigenic 10Be/9Be dating method is employed and tested to construct an age mode...

The depositional record of intermontane basins provides a valuable archive of the temporal evolution of orogenic belts; their common isolated nature may, however, hinder the efficient usage of standard approaches to constrain the age of a basin fill. In this paper the authigenic 10Be/9Be dating method is employed and tested to construct an age mode...

The aim of this study was to analyze temporal and spatial changes in paleoenvironments from demise of the Sarmatian Sea to the Lake Pannon transgression (~11.6 Ma), as an example of a sequence boundary in a semi- to fully isolated epicontinental basin. Borehole cores from the central Vienna Basin were subject to facies analysis, biostratigraphy, ge...

Authigenic 10Be/9Be dating is a promising method with the ability to date mudstone up to 14 million years, providing that the initial isotopic ratio could be determined and that the input of isotopes remained stable over the dated period. In a recent case study redeposition of mud violated the condition of stable beryllium isotopic input in a fluvi...

Authigenic 10Be/9Be dating is a promising method with the ability to date mudstone up to 14 million years, providing that the initial isotopic ratio could be determined and that the input of isotopes remained stable over the dated period. In a recent case study redeposition of mud violated the condition of stable beryllium isotopic input in a fluvi...

Wind erosion features like wind-polished pebbles and rock surfaces or wind-carved landforms carry important information on past air flow systems. Because of the dominantly mountainous topography, Slovakia does not abound in such features. Still, they are present, especially in the southern, lower-lying parts of the country. In 2014 and 2015, invest...

This study examines the suitability of the authigenic 10Be/9Be dating method to the dating of the deposits of an incising river, taking as an example the Nová Vieska river terrace, which accumulated during the neotectonic inversion of the Danube Basin (western Slovakia). The succession was formed by a wandering river with minor preservation of prox...

The depositional record of intermontane basins provides a valuable archive of the temporal evolution of orogenic belts; their common isolated nature, however, hinders the efficient usage of standard approaches to constrain the age of a basin fill. In this paper the authigenic 10Be/9Be dating method is employed to construct an age model of the exist...

This study examines the suitability of the authigenic 10Be/9Be dating method to the dating of the deposits of an incising river, taking as an example the Nová Vieska river terrace, which accumulated during the neotectonic inversion of the Danube Basin (western Slovakia). The succession was formed by a wandering river with minor preservation of prox...

The ratio of radionuclide 10Be and stable nuclide 9Be in a water column is affected by proximity of terrestrial sources, since 9Be is derived from weathering of rock masses, while cosmogenic 10Be has a meteoric origin. Prograding of river deltas forming deltaic parasequences (high frequency cycles) as well as prograding of shelf slopes (4th and hig...

The principle of authigenic 10Be/9Be dating method is similar to any other radiometric dating method which utilizes the equation N=N0 e-λt. However, the different source of the isotopes 9Be (from weathering of rock massifs) and 10Be (from atmosphere, through spallation reaction) brings some difficulties in direct application of the authigenic 10Be/...

The authigenic 10Be/9Be ratio provides an important geochronological tool to date a depositional age of clay bearing sediment, nevertheless, recent studies showed that the initial 10Be/9Be ratio might be affected by changes in paleoenvironmental conditions and post-depositional processes. The method is based on the ratio of atmospheric cosmogenic r...

In a recent paper by Palcu et al. (2021: Scientific Reports 11, Art. Nr.: 11471), the Cape Panagia section on the Taman peninsula (Russian Black Sea) was dated using magnetostratigraphy, in order to calibrate the timing of previously published regressions of the Paratethys megalake. The authors of the paper claim that this “largest megalake in the...

V oblasti Mlynskej doliny v Bratislave boli skúmané sedimenty Panónskeho jazera. Nový výskum stanovil vek záplavy jazera na úpätí Malých Karpát. Aké boli podmienky prostredia, ktoré tu pred asi 10 miliónmi rokov panovalo?

Studies of seismically triggered deformations in the depositional record contribute significantly to our knowledge of earthquake recurrence over geological time. This paper describes soft sediment deformation structures preserved in a periglacial Upper Pleistocene succession of eolian sand in the eastern Vienna Basin, Central Europe. The strata wer...

International chronostratigraphic chart showing division of geological time and its numerical ages is regularly updated by the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). The Slovak chronostratigraphic chart has not been updated since the end of the 1980s. This paper provides an overview of standard procedures for deriving Slovak terms; introdu...

Final version published here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0037073822000240 The manuscript is a non-peer reviewed preprint submitted to EarthArXiv. Seismic hazard assessment is an important issue in geological research. Paleoseismological studies of the depositional record contribute significantly to our knowledge of earthqua...

The depocenters of epicontinental basins usually comprise relatively continuous depositional records, and these can be used in the determination of sediment routing and paleogeographic changes via a set of various geophysical, sedimentological, biostratigraphic and geochronological approaches. Although the margins of such basins will have a major r...

Paleoseismological research focused on the intensity and recurrence intervals of earthquakes trough geological time is of primary importance for the prediction of geohazards related to seismic events. It is done routinely by dating the exposure of fault scarps using in situ produced cosmogenic nuclides, by dating the deposition of strata progressiv...

The study focuses on the upper Miocene colluvial to alluvial fan deposits of the Modrová Mb., which accumulated on the marginal blocks of the Považský Inovec Mts., transitional to surrounding depressions of the Danube Basin. These blocks are delimited tectonically according to the geophysical evidence, and the late Miocene normal faulting produced...

The ratio of channel belt to overbank deposits in alluvial sequences and the variability in channel belt distribution are the most important characteristics of alluvial stratigraphic architecture. The ratio of floodplain facies to channel fills is determined by the sediment supply to accommodation rate ratio, yet the relation is probably more compl...

Bourlès et al. (1989: Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta) suggested that authigenic 10Be/9Be ratio could provide a geochronological tool to date deposition of clay-bearing sediment settled in a water column up to 14 Ma old. It is based on ratio of atmospheric cosmogenic radionuclide 10Be delivered to depositional environments by precipitation and stable 9Be...

The authigenic 10Be/9Be dating method utilizes the ratio of cosmogenic radionuclide 10Be produced in the atmosphere and of stable 9Be derived from chemical erosion of rock massifs.Different origin of both nuclides points to difficulty in determination of the initial isotopic ratio, which radioactive decay is the base of age calculation using the eq...

To track the evolution and formation of one of the major sub-basins of the Pannonian back-arc basin system, we re-evaluate pre-rift, syn-rift, post-rift, and inversion stages of the Danube Basin. This synthesis builds upon a new compilation of (i) geophysical measurements, (ii) current data about the substratum of the basin, (iii) recent advances i...

The Cretaceous basement of the broader NW Pannonian Basin, including the Vienna Basin, has an Alpine nappe structure that can be correlated between the Eastern Alps and the Western Carpathians. For the first time in this region, based on the systematic integration of petroleum industry vintage 2D reflection seismic data with well data from Austria,...

LiDAR data in the research of dolines on the plateaus of the Kuchyňa-Orešany Karst The paper presents the usage of LiDAR data as a basemap for spatial analyses in geographical informational systems (GIS) to identify count, depth and perimeter of doli-nes in the karst area in the Little Carpathian Mountains (Malé Karpaty in Slovak). Specifically, th...

The Cretaceous basement of the broader NW Pannonian Basin, including the Vienna Basin, has an Alpine nappe structure that can be correlated between the Eastern Alps and the Western Carpathians. For the first time in this region, based on the systematic integration of petroleum industry vintage 2D reflection seismic data with well data from Austria,...

The Miocene global climatic changes together with profound regional tectonic activity significantly influenced the Central Paratethys epicontinental sea. The aim of this study was to reveal relationships between regional and global changes during the beginning Middle Miocene Climatic Transition. The work focused on the northern margin of the Pannon...

The Miocene genus Rzehakia, an endemic brackish bivalve that lived in the Paratethys Sea, recorded in late Ottnangian sediments deposited during the regression of the Central Paratethys Sea in the semi-enclosed Alpine-Carpathian foreland basin, is closely related to the Rzehakia found hundreds of kilometres away in the early Badenian transgressive...

The late Badenian and Sarmatian (Serravallian) evolution of depositional environments in the Danube Basin (Želiezovce Depression) has never been fully explored. Here, we clarify the paleoenvironmental changes which took place in this area during the late Badenian and Sarmatian on the basis of sedimentological, petrographic, biostratigraphic and pal...

Deep wells penetrated Cenozoic sedimentary record of two different basins: 1) Oligocene retro-arc basin which is buried under the 2) Miocene back-arc Danube Basin. This study is focused on biotic and abiotic proxies discussed in terms of existing biostratigraphical, paleoenvironmental and sedimentological data. Biotic proxies are represented by pal...

The Neogene Transylvanian Basin (TB), enclosed between the eastern and southern Carpathians and the Apuseni Mountains in Romania, is a significant natural gas province with a long production history. In order to improve the (bio) stratigraphic resolution, correlations and dating in the several 100-m-thick upper Miocene (Pannonian) succession of the...

V posledných dvoch desaťročiach nastali významné zmeny v litostratigrafickej koncepcii sedimentov vrchného miocénu až kvartéru Dunajskej panvy. Nová koncepcia vychádza najmä z novej genetickej (sedimentologickej) definície súvrství a pomerne veľkého množstva nových údajov o ich veku. Na základe dokumentácie vrstevných sledov podľa odkryvov alebo pr...

The lower Turolian (MN11) assemblage of rodents collected from new temporal outcrop near Triblavina (Danube Basin, Western Slovakia) is described. Fossils were collected from at least 2.5 tons of sediment that was wet sieved on a set of stable sieves. The mesh size of the lower sieve was 0.5 mm and the residue was not treated with acids for the sak...

We present new age constraints for the late Miocene Volkovce Formation of Slovakia, alluvial facies that accumulated adjacent to Lake Pannon. Facies analysis and authigenic 10Be/9Be dating was undertaken at the Bernolákovo and Triblavina localities while the latter outcrop also yielded additional small mammal and mollusk assemblages as well as rema...

Relationships between spatially variable accommodation rate and the distribution of channel belt deposits are important issues in alluvial stratigraphy. This segment of sedimentology still records important progress using experimental models and field examples. This study focuses on the alluvial stratigraphy of the Volkovce Fm. which was deposited...

A new stratigraphic standard for the open lacustrine to deltaic Pannonian Stage is emerging from the combined sedimentological, lithostratigraphical, sequence stratigraphical, biostratigraphical, seismic stratigraphical, geochronological, and magnetostratigraphical investigations of 6 long drill cores. These were drilled by Paks II Nuclear Power Pl...

The Pannonian Basin System (PBS), located between the mountain chains of the Carpathians, Eastern Alps and Dinarides (Central Europe), experienced a long lasting accumulation in post-rift settings during the late Miocene. A major change in depositional record was caused by the following Pliocene basin inversion. Lithospheric scale folding was refle...

Revealing of connections between spatial variability of alluvial depositional systems and changes in accommodation rates is often obscured by a lack of age constraints, which are necessary for age-depth models. The authigenic 10Be/9Be dating method provides a strong geochronological tool for the late Cenozoic deposits, with possibility to date the...

The modern appearance of Bratislava city mirrors the geological evolution of the area. The last approximately 15 million years left the most significant traces when the combination of tectonic effects and sedimentation resulted in the presence of the Badenian Sea, Pannonian Lake with the paleo-Danube Delta, Danube raging during ice ages and meander...

The Transylvanian Basin (TB), enclosed between the Eastern and Southern Carpathians and the Apuseni Mts. in Romania, accommodates a several-hundred-meter thick Upper Miocene (Pannonian) sedimentary sequence. Data on its fossils are few and scattered in the literature, consequently its biochronostratigraphic assessment implies much uncertainty. The...

The Transylvanian Basin (TB), enclosed between the Eastern and Southern Carpathians and the Apuseni Mts. in Romania, accommodates a several-hundred-meter thick Upper Miocene (Pannonian) sedimentary sequence. Data on its fossils are few and scattered in the literature, consequently its biochronostratigraphic assessment implies much uncertainty. The...

Constraining the geochronology of epicontinental depositional record of the Central Paratethys remains still a challenging issue. The authigenic 10Be/9Be dating method provides a strong geochronological tool for the late Cenozoic deposits, with possibility to date the event of sedimentation of clay particles (Bourlés et al., 1989; Šujan et al., 201...

Upper Cenozoic epicontinental sequences of the Central Paratethys often have a poorly constrained geochronological framework due to highly endemic fauna, lack of datable volcanic ashes and discontinuous depositional record unsuitable for magnetostratigraphy. As a novel geochronological tool, we used the authigenic 10Be/9Be dating method, which is a...

Seismically active fault zones receive a great deal of attention due to their potential for quantification of seismic hazards. Zones with low slip rates pose a challenge, however, since their poor topographic expression is related to difficulties in the quantification of fault movement. This study focuses on the Dobrá Voda Depression, an area with...

Abstract: The Dobrá Voda seismoactive area is the most significant seismic source zone in terms of seismic hazard of Slovakia. It is situated at the contact of the Bohemian Massif, Western Carpathians, and Eastern Alps. On the surface, the Dobrá Voda seismoactive area is built from the Triassic carbonate rocks overlain by Cainozoic sediments. The...

The studied area, as the part of the Malé Karpaty Mts., is an integral part of the Western Carpathian orogenic belt. The Komberek karst area is built up by the Tatricum and Fatricum tectonic units. The studied area belongs to the Kuchyňa-Orešany Karst, where on the northeastern part the karst plain Komberek (Kŕč) Hill (409 m a.s.l.) is situated. Du...

The purpose of the study was to investigate, whether the newly developed laboratory at the Dept. of Geology and Palaeontology (Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia) is suitable for processing of samples for authigenic 10Be/9Be dating method. The approach was validated on reprocessing of four samples, which were previously analysed at CEREGE...

The Danube Basin, located in the junction of the Eastern Alps and Western Carpathians, comprises up to 600 m thick alluvial succession, which was previously assigned to Quaternary without geochronological constraints. The internal stratigraphy and timing of the succession remained unknown, although it has potential to provide an important record of...