Tracing the latest Jurassic–earliest Cretaceous paleoenvironment evolution in swell carbonate facies: a case study of the High-Tatric succession (Central Western Carpathians, Tatra Mts, Poland)

Abstract

This paper presents an interpretation of sedimentologic, paleomagnetic, and geochemical data collected in the Upper Kimmeridgian–Valanginian carbonates of the Giewont series (Giewont and Mały Giewont sections, High-Tatric succession, Western Tatra Mountains, Poland). The studied succession provides insight into the sedimentary conditions prevailing in the South Tatric Ridge (Tatricum), a submarine elevation located between the Zliechov Basin (Fatricum) and the Vahic (=South Penninic) Ocean. The sedimentary sequence includes micrites, pseudonodular limestones, cyanoid packstones, lithoclastic packstone, and encrinites. The results are discussed with regards to their significance for detrital input, paleoclimate, and paleoproductivity, which in turn are considered in the context of both local and regional paleoenvironmental trends and events. The greatest depositional depths during the latest Kimmeridgian–earliest Tithonian are documented by the occurrence of pseudonodular limestones. A Tithonian shallowing trend is demonstrated via the increasing size and roundness of cyanoids, while the final (?)emergence and erosion in the South Tatric Ridge is documented by earliest Cretaceous disconformities. This process might have been related to both falling sea-level during the major eustatic regressive cycle and tectonic uplift caused by the mutually related (re)activation in the Neotethyan Collision Belt and rifting in the Ligurian-Penninic-Vahic Oceans. The highest lithogenic influx (although still low; max 0.5% of Al content) during the Late Kimmeridgian is considered as associated with relatively humid climate conditions, whereas a subsequent decreasing trend is thought to result from aridification during the latest Kimmeridgian–earliest Tithonian. Ultimately, deposition in the High-Tatric zone was affected by both large-scale environmental perturbations characteristic of the latest Jurassic (climate changes, variations in seawater pH, monsoonal upwelling, lithogenic input, etc.), as well as local sedimentary controls, predominantly the oxygenation state of bottom waters and tectonic movements.