Depositional evolution of the Holly Cross Mts. (Poland) in the Devonian and Carboniferous - a review

Abstract

The Devonian and Early Carboniferous succession in the Holy Mts. records a steady sea level rise and is bounded by major angular unconformities. The Lower Devonian is developed as a terrigenic sequence of complex, continental and shallow-marine facies. Growth of a shallow-marine platform in the Middle to Upper Devonian resulted in separation of two adjacent intrashelf basins. This central swell was stepwise transformed in a pelagic carbonate platform and influenced a pattern of facies and thickness after its completed drowning in the Visean. An impressive progress is noticed in understanding of sedimentation and stratigraphy of the carbonate succession, while recognition of depositional environments and regimes in the Devonian and Carboniferous clastics still remains a subject of several basic questions.