Development of the Mid-Polish Trough versus Late Jurassic evolution in the Carpathian Foredeep area

Abstract

Late Jurassic is the key epoch for an idea of the existence of the southeastern segment of the Mid-Polish Trough. New data on the evolution of Upper Jurassic deposits in the Carpathian Foredeep substrate provide information that there is a complete Oxfordian through Valanginian succession in the area of thick Oxfordian and Kimmeridgian deposits, proving the occurrence of the trough. Thickness of the Oxfordian and Kimmeridgian succession is twice to three times smaller than previously assumed. The facies development pattern distinguishes this area from the rest of the Late Jurassic basin. The sponge megafacies ranges up into the lowermost Tithonian in this region. Tithonian Stramberk-type reefs occur near the Carpathian thrust front and alongside. The Late Jurassic and earliest Cretaceous facies are latitudinally arranged. Starting from the latest Middle Jurassic, the study area showed strong structural and facies relations to the Tethys domain. The collected data contradict the hypothesis that the Mid-Polish Trough continues in the Carpathian Foredeep substrate.