Badania utworów karbonu w Instytucie Geologicznym w latach 1919–1979

Abstract

 Omówiono rozwój badań osadów karbonu w Polsce prowadzonych w Instytucie Geologicznym Podano główne etapy rozpoznania i wymieniono podstawowe prace z geologii karbonu. W zakończeniu przedstawiono rysujące się na obecnym etapie zagadnienia stojące przed Instytutem Geologicznym w zakresie badań stratygraficznych, litologicznych, paleogeograficznych i tektonicznych karbonu w Polsce.

THE STUDIES ON THE CARBONIFEROUS BY THE GEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE IN THE YEARS 1919–1979

In works of the State Geological Institute and its successor, Geological Institute, much attention has been paid to Carboniferous rocks on account of their economic significance.

The studies carried out in the years 1919–1939 were primarily focussed on the Upper Carboniferous in the Upper Silesia and the Lower Carboniferous in the Góry Świętokrzyskie Mts.

The studies initiated by the State Geological Institute after a break: resulting from the world war II comprised the whole area of the Upper Silesia, Sudety Mts as well as the Góry Świętokrzyskie Mts.

In the Upper Silesia, an uniform nomenclature of coal seams was introduced and their chronostratigraphic position was established as early as 1952 by S. Doktorowicz-Hrebnicki and T. Bocheński.

The range of the studies became markedly widened after the conference on perspectives of Polish geology which has taken place in the Central Board of Geology in 1954. In the following years, wide-range drilling works were initiated in the Upper Silesian region and its neighbourhood, Lublin region and, subsequently, Lower Silesia, Wielkopolska and Pomerania. The analysis of core material from first drillings in the Lublin region, carried out by the team from the Upper Silesian Branch of the Geological Institute (osady karbońskie w Zagłębiu Lubelskim, 1966), resulted in discovery of a new coal basin (Z. Dembowski, 1968, 1974; Z. Dembowski and J. Porzycki, 1967). The developments in stratigraphy, lithology and petrography made it possible to present a new monograph of the Carboniferous of the Upper Silesia (Karbon Górnośląskiego Zagłębia Węglowego, 1972). The studies carried out by the Geological Institute markedly contributed to the knowledge of stratigraphy and lithology of the Carboniferous of the Sudety Mts. Rocks previously regarded as of the pre-Carboniferous age were shown to be Visean and a part of so called Culm of the South-Sudetic Basin appeared to be of the Permian age. These findings essentially changed the views on the tectonics of the Sudety Mts and the extent of Coal Measures formation. Moreover, the Upper Carboniferous was recorded in the North Sudetic Basin, in the forefield of the Sudety Mts. Palynological and faunistic analyses of core material showed the presence of Carboniferous rocks ranging in age from the turn of the Devonian and Carboniferous to the Upper Visean in the Lower Silesia and Wielkopolska regions.

In the Holy Cross Mts, the studies were focussed on the Lower Carboniferous cropping out here (H. Żakowa, 1970) or penetrated by drillings at the margin of this region. The studies of the Carboniferous of the Polish Lowlands were initiated in the Lublin region and subsequently widened to cover a vast area up to the vicinities of Szczecin. They made it possible to define the extent of the Carboniferous along the East-European Platform (K. Bojkowski, Z. Dembowski, 1973; K. Bojkowski, A.M. Żelichowski, in press).

In the Geological Institute, the basic studies on the Carboniferous are carried out by: A. Jachowicz, S. Dybova-Jachowicz, M. Brzozowska, T. Górecka, H. Kmiecik; S. Knafel and Z. Żołdani in the field of palynology, K. Bojkowski, L. Musiał, M Tabor, H. Żakowa and A.M. Żelichowski in the field of macrofauna, M. Chorowska, J. Soboń-Podgórska, S. Woszczyńska in the field of microfauna, Z. Dembowski, A. Kotas and T. Migier in the field of macroflora S. Cebulak, B. Nurkiewicz, M. Skupień, M. Polońska-Butkiewicz and T. Popek in the field of petrography, and Z. Dembowski, A. Kotas, J. Porzycki, K. Augustyniak and others in the field of lithology. General problems of Carboniferous geology in the fields of lithostratigraphy, paleogeography and tectonics are the subject of studies of K. Bojkowski, Z. Dembowsi, A. Jachowicz, J. Porzycki, A Kotas, H. Żakowa and A. M. Żelichowski. The results of these studies were published in special atlases and numerous issues of Biuletyn and Prace of the Geological Institute as well as they were presented at successive Congresses of Carboniferous Stratigraphy and Geology in the years 1958, 1963, 1967, 1971 and 1975.

The gathered palynologicaI and lithological material is very rich and, despite of the available elaborations, further studies are needed for making more accurate correlations of Carboniferous strata in Poland and correlations with those from western and eastern Europe, and tracing the boundary between folded rocks of the Variscides of south-western Poland and platform deposits of north-eastern

Poland.