Sedimentological study of the Nikolčice Formation – evidence of the Middle Jurassic transgression onto the Bohemian Massif (subsurface data)

Abstract

The Jurassic sedimentary succession along the eastern margin of the Bohemian Massif starts with mostly fluvial deposits of the Gresten Formation and continues after marine transgression with the deposition of the Nikolčice Formation (Middle Jurassic, Callovian). The provenance and depositional environment of the Nikolčice Formation showed that deposition occurred within offshore, transitional zone, shoreface, foreshore and littoral sand bar environments; however, shoreface and foreshore deposits dominate in the cores studied. The crystalline units along the eastern margins of the Bohemian Massif represent the primary source of deposits of the Nikolčice Formation. An important role was played by acidic and intermediate plutonites and highly metamorphosed metasedimentary rocks (granulite and amphibolite metamorphic facies), which indicates an advanced stage of erosion of the source area. The role of volcanic and intrusive rocks was small. The primary source was followed by an additional recycled source from older sedimentary rocks (especially the Moravo-Silesian Paleozoic deposits – the Líšeň Formation, the Myslejovice Formation). A similarity of the source areas for the Nikolčice Formation and the underlying Gresten Formation was recognized. Identified differences in their source areas are mainly explained by varied erosional levels due to successive exhumation of the source Variscan orogen and possibly also by an expansion of the source area.