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The Early Miocene residual flysch basin at the front of the Central Western Carpathians and its palaeogeographic implications (Magura Nappe, Poland)

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Geo log i cal Quar terly, 2018, 62 (3): 597–619
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7306/gq.1425
The Early Mio cene re sid ual flysch ba sin at the front of the Cen tral West ern
Carpathians and its palaeogeographic im pli ca tions (Magura Nappe, Po land)
Marta OSZCZYPKO-CLOWES1, *, Nestor OSZCZYPKO1, Anna PIECUCH1, Jan SOTAK2, 3
and Józef BORATYN4
1Jagiellonian Uni ver sity, In sti tute of Geo log i cal Sci ences, Gronostajowa 3a, 30-387 Kraków, Po land
2Slo vak Acad emy of Sci ences, Earth Sci ence In sti tute, Ïumbierska, 974 11 Banska Bystrica, Slovakia
3KU Ružomberok, De part ment of Ge og ra phy, Fac ulty of Ed u ca tion, Hrabovská cesta 1, 03401 Ružomberok, Slovakia
4Przedsiêbiorstwo Geologiczne S.A. w Krakowie, Kijowska 16A, 30-079 Kraków, Po land
Oszczypko-Clowes, M., Oszczypko, N., Piecuch, A., Sotak, J., Boratyn, J., 2018. The Early Mio cene re sid ual flysch ba sin at
the front of the Cen tral West ern Carpathians and its palaeogeographic im pli ca tions (Magura Nappe, Po land). Geo log i cal
Quar terly, 62 (3): 597–619, doi: 10.7306/gq.1425
In the Pol ish sec tor of the Magura Nappe, along the front of the Pieniny Klippen Belt, strongly tectonized cal car e ous flysch up
to 1000 m thick is ex posed. Pre vi ously these de pos its, com posed of thin- to thick-bed ded flysch, with a packet of £¹cko-type
marls, have been in cluded into sev eral Paleocene/Eocene for ma tions, e.g., the Szczawnica For ma tion. This for ma tion con -
tains a poor as sem blage of ag glu ti nated foraminifera and a rel a tively rich as sem blage of cal car e ous nannoplankton, with
abun dant re worked spe cies. The youn gest spe cies give ev i dence of the NN2 Zone (Lower Mio cene). Ad di tion ally, in three
pro files (Szlachtowa, Knurów and Waksmund) of the Kremna Fm., Early Mio cene foraminifera have been rec og nized. This
re search doc u mented that dur ing the Burdigalian, at the front of Cen tral West ern Carpathians, there still ex isted a re sid ual
ma rine ba sin prob a bly up to 100 km wide. These de pos its also con tain thick pack ages of ex otic car bon ate con glom er ates
de rived from the SE, pre vi ously re garded as the Jarmuta For ma tion.
Key words: Outer Carpathians, Magura Nappe, re sid ual flysch ba sin, Early Mio cene, cal car e ous nannoplankton, palaeo ge -
ogra phy.
INTRODUCTION
Since the sec ond half of the last cen tury, there has been a
dom i nant view that the clo sure of sed i men ta tion in the Magura
Paleogene Ba sin pro gressed grad u ally from the Mid dle Eocene
in the Krynica fa cies zone, in the south, to the Early Oligocene
in the Siary fa cies zone in the north (Sikora and ¯ytko,1960;
Wêc³awik, 1969; Sikora, 1970; Ksi¹¿kiewicz, 1972, 1977;
Birkenmajer and Oszczypko, 1989). This point of the view has
been par tially mod i fied fol low ing the dis cov ery of the Oligocene
Malcov For ma tion (Fm.) above the Magura Sand stone Fm. in
the Nowy cz and Nowy Targ ar eas by Oszczypko (1973) and
Cieszkowski and Olszewska (1986), re spec tively. Later, some
of these strata were con sid ered by Cieszkowski (1992, 1995)
as youn ger ma rine “molasse for ma tions of
Badenian/Sarmatian age.
At the turn of the last cen tury Oligocene/Mio cene flysch de -
pos its were dis cov ered in sev eral places within the Magura
Nappe of the Pol ish and Slo vak sec tors of the Outer West ern
Carpathians (Oszczypko et al., 1999, 2005a; Oszczypko and
Oszczypko-Clowes, 2002; Matašovsky and Andreye va-Grigo -
rovich, 2002). In sub se quent pub li ca tions (Oszczypko and
Oszczypko-Clowes, 2010, 2014) these Oligocene/Mio cene de -
pos its have been de scribed as the Kremna Fm. at Stara
¼ubovòa (Slovakia) and in the Ma³e (Lit tle) Pieniny Mts. (Po -
land). Far ther to the east these de pos its were rec og nized by us
at the front of the Pieniny Klippen Belt (PKB), at the Obruæne
and Dubne lo cal i ties (Smreczek Stream, right trib u tary of the
Poprad River). This study fo cuses on the area be tween Jaworki
(E) and Nowy Targ (W), as cru cial the un der stand ing the re la -
tion ship be tween the Magura Nappe, the PKB and the Cen tral
West ern Carpathians (CWC). Keep ing this in mind we re-eval u -
ate ex ist ing as well as new geo log i cal and biostratigraphical
data of the Oligocene/Mio cene de pos its at the front of the PKB.
This is im por tant for better un der stand ing of the palaeo ge ogra -
phy and re la tion ships be tween the CWC, PKB and Magura
Nappe be fore the Early/Mid dle Mio cene short en ing of the Outer
West ern Carpathians (OWC).
PREVIOUS WORK
In the Pol ish Outer Carpathians the Up per Eocene/Oligo -
cene de pos its of the Magura Suc ces sion were first rec og nized
by Oszczypko (1973), at the south ern mar gin of the Nowy cz
* Corresponding author, e-mail: m.oszczypko-clowes@uj.edu.pl
Received: September 28, 2017; accepted: April 4, 2018; first
published online: August 24, 2018
Ba sin (Nowy cz 1 bore hole), and in the Zawada and
Biegonice sec tions of the Raèa fa cies zone (Figs. 1, 2 and 3).
These de pos its, lo cated at the top of the Up per Eocene Magura
Sand stone Fm., were re garded as the Malcov For ma tion
(Ksi¹¿kiewicz and Leško, 1959; Leško and Sam uel, 1968). In
sam ples from the Malcov For ma tion, Blaicher (in Oszczypko,
1973) rec og nized three dif fer ent age as sem blages (ben thic and
plank tonic), al beit in ter mixed, con tain ing Early/Mid dle Eocene;
Late Eocene/Oligocene and Oligocene spe cies. The youn gest
Oligocene foraminifera were con sid ered as autochthonous,
and the two other as sem blages as re worked.
The Biegonice and Zawada sec tions have been re-ex am -
ined by Oszczypko et al. (1999). These stud ies doc u mented
the pres ence of Early Mio cene foraminifera (N5) and cal car e -
ous nannoplankton (NN1-3) in de pos its as signed to the Mid dle
Eocene, as the £¹cko Marls. Fi nally all these marly de pos its
were in cluded into the Zawada For ma tion (Oszczypko et al.,
1999; Oszczypko and Oszczypko-Clowes, 2002).
Other young de pos its (Up per Eocene/Oligocene) of the
Magura Suc ces sion have been rec og nized as the Malcov For -
ma tion (Cieszkowski and Olszewska, 1986), in sev eral sec tions
near Nowy Targ and close to the PKB (Figs. 1 and 2). In these
sec tions, the thick-bed ded Magura-type sand stones with in ter -
ca la tions of grey marly claystones, were pre vi ously re garded as
the Inoceramian beds (Cenomanian–TuronianHalicki, 1959;
Turonian–Maastrichtian–DanianWatycha, 1963).
A few years later, the Early Mio cene flysch of the Magura
Suc ces sion was rec og nized, in the Nowy Targ 1 bore hole (Paul
and Poprawa, 1992), close to north ern bound ary of the PKB.
More or less si mul ta neously, in sim i lar de pos its (thick-bed ded
sand stones) Cieszkowski (1992, 1995) and Cieszkowski et al.
(1993) de scribed the flysch de pos its of the Stare Bystre and
RogoŸnik sec tions (Podhale re gion) which were con sid ered to
be the youn gest Mid dle Mio cene (Langhian–Serravalian) de -
pos its of the Magura Suc ces sion. Re cently the age of the Stare
Bystre de pos its was re-eval u ated to be of Early Mio cene age
(see the dis cus sion in Kaczmarek et al., 2016).
There has been an in ter est ing evo lu tion of views on the age
of the youn gest de pos its of the Magura Nappe in East ern
Slovakia. This be gan with the dis cov ery by Matašovsky and
Andreyeva-Grigorovich (2002) of the Up per Oligocene/Lower
Mio cene de pos its of the Magura Nappe in the Peri-PKB zone
near Humenné. Previosly these de pos its were re garded to as of
Eocene age. To wards the west, near Stara ¼ubovòa, in a sim i -
lar tec tonic postion (Peri-PKB zone), there are de pos its de -
scribed by Uhlig (1890a, b, 1903) as theNördliche Grenze
Flysch Zone”. Horwitz (1935) de scribed these strata as the
Peri- or Inter-Klippen Flysch”, later dis tin guished by Matìjka
(1959) as the Kremna fa cies. These beds have also been stud -
ied by Stranik and Hanzlikova (1968) as the Paleocene/Eocene
sandy-con glom er atic cal car e ous flysch, 1200–1600 m thick,
with in ter ca la tions of grey-green ish claystones and siltstones.
Many years later these de pos its were de fined by
Oszczypko et al. (2005a) as the Kremna For ma tion, be ing the
youn gest Oligocene–Lower Mio cene mem ber of the Magura
Suc ces sion in the Peri-PKB zone, dif fer ent from the Malcov
Fm. Cal car e ous nannoplankon stud ies of the Kremna Fm.
showed a pre dom i nance (50%) of re de pos ited spe cies, mainly
Mid dle–Late Eocene, while the youn gest spe cies iden ti fied be -
long to the Early Mio cene (NN1 and NN2 zones, Oszczypko et
al., 2005a). The Kremna Fm. is re garded as an equiv a lent of
the Zawada and Stare Bystre for ma tions in the Nowy cz and
Podhale ar eas. Re cently the Kremna Fm. has been rec og nized
in the Krynica fa cies zone of the Muszyna and Jaworki ar eas
(Oszczypko and Oszczypko-Clowes, 2010) as well in the
Magura Autochthonous Paleogenein tec tonic win dows in the
PKB (Oszczypko and Oszczypko-Clowes, 2010, 2014).
Oligocene-Lower Mio cene flysch de pos its have also been doc -
u mented in the Horná Orava re gion of West ern Slovakia
(Oszczypko-Clowes et al., 2013).
GEOLOGICAL SETTING
Our stud ies mainly fo cus on the Paleogene de pos its of the
Magura Nappe (Krynica sub-unit), along the north ern mar gin of
the Pol ish sec tor of the PKB (Figs. 1, 2 and 3). This area is a
mor pho log i cal de pres sion, sev eral kilo metres wide, sit u ated
be tween the Pieniny and Ma³e (Lit tle) Pieniny Mts. to the south
and the Gorce/Beskid decki ranges in the north. The
Nördliche Flysch Zone” (Uhlig, 1890a, b, 1903, 1907) or
“Magura flysch (Paleocene/Lower Eocene)” (Horwitz, 1935,
1963), placed be neath the Mid dle/Up per Eocene (sub-Magura
and Magura beds), have been re garded as the old est de pos its
of the Magura Suc ces sion in the the Gorce and Beskid decki
ranges. Based on poorly pre served foraminifera, these are re -
garded as the old est de pos its in this area, and have been clas -
si fied into the Ropianka beds (Watycha, 1975; Burtan et al.,
1981), an equivalenf of the Inoceramian beds (Up per Cre ta -
ceous/Paleocene) of the more ex ter nal units of the Pol ish Outer
Carpathians. Fur ther stud ies based on small num bers of ag glu -
ti nated foraminifers and poorly pre served cal car e ous nanno -
plankton (Birkenmajer and Dudziak, 1981; Golonka and
czkowski, 1981, 1984; Alexandrowicz et al., 1984; Kulka et
al., 1987, 1991) led to units of Up per Paleocene–Mid dle
Eocene age be ing distinghuished. The fol low ing Paleo -
cene/Eocene for mal lithostratigraphy of the Krynica sub-unit
has been pro posed by Birkenmajer and Oszczypko (1989): the
Szczawnica For ma tion (Mid dle/Up per Paleocene), up to 400 m
thick, with the level of the £¹cko Marls (up to 50 m), fol lowed by
the Frydman Fm. (Lower Eocene), up 400 m thick, and the
Magura Sand stone Fm. (Lower/Up per Eocene), over lain by the
up per most Eocene/Lower Oligocene Malcov Fm.
The Magura Fm. is the youn gest de posit of the Krynica
sub-unit, with the ex cep tion of the Malcov Fm., lo cally oc cur ring
near Nowy cz (Oszczypko, 1973) and Nowy Targ
(Cieszkowski and Olszewska, 1986). The Magura Fm., up to
2000 m thick (Birkenmajer and Oszczypko,1989; Kulka et al.,
199