Microbial laminites with coprolites from Upper Jurassic carbonate buildups (Kraków-Częstochowa Upland, Poland)

Abstract

The Upper Oxfordian microbial-sponge agglutinated to open-frame reef complex of the Zegarowe Crags in the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland originated upon an elevation of the Late Jurassic stable northern shelf of the Tethys. This elevation was formed, owing to a local decrease in subsidence rate during Jurassic time, induced by the presence of a Palaeozoic granitoid intrusion in the shelf substratum, and Late Jurassic, synsedimentary tectonics, which controlled the topography of the sea bottom. The Zegarowe Crags (Skały Zegarowe) complex at the top contains microbial laminites, composed of peloidal and agglutinated stromatolites, and intercalations of grainstones with indeterminable, favrenoid coprolites, occurring in large numbers. The development of stromatolites was associated with low nutrient availability. In contrast, the periodic activity of crabs, the main producers of the coprolites, forming the coprolitic grainstone intercalations, indicates periods, when nutrients were abundant in the sea water. The nutrinets most likely were associated with the occurrence of clouds of suspended matter, induced by gravity flows, generated by active, synsedimentary tectonics. The results of isotopic studies do not support the presence of warm, mineralizing solutions, connected with synsedimentary tectonics during development of the Zegarowe Crags complex in the Late Jurassic.