Oxfordian and Kimmeridgian of the northeastern margin of the Holy Cross Mountains, Central Poland

Abstract

In Late Jurassic the area of Central Poland was a part of the northern Tethyan shelf which developed in the margins of the East European Craton. The present day NE margin of the Holy Cross Mountains was situated in a proximal part of this shelf. The Oxfordian sedimentation began with open shelf, sponge-algal mudstone of the mariae, cordatum, and plicatilis Zones. During the latest transversarium and bifuratus Chrons, shallow water biogenic and oncolitic facies developed. They were, in turn, replaced during the Late Oxfordian and the Early Kimmeridgian by oolitic-bioclastic grainstones and laminites. During the divisum Chon and the Late Kimmeridgian oyster shellbeds and clays were deposited. Within the studied sequence thirteen lithostratigraphic units are established and described. The collected ammonite fauna document the following ammonite zones: mariae, cordatum, plicatilis, transversarium, bifuratus, planula, hypselocyclum and bifuratus divisum