Geology of the Magura Nappe in the Osielec area with emphasis on an Eocene olistostrome with metabasite olistoliths (Outer Carpathians, Poland)

Abstract

The Magura Nappe in the Polish sector of the Outer Carpathians consists of four tectonic subunits characterized by differing development of facies. From the south to the north, they include the Siary, Rača, Bystrica and Krynica subunits. The sedimentary succession in the Rača Subunit in the vicinity of the village of Osielec is composed of Campanian–Palaeogene flysch deposited in the Magura Basin. In this succession, the Middle Eocene Pasierbiec Sandstone Fm consists of thick-bedded sandstones and conglomerates with occasional intercalations of thin-bedded shale-sandstone flysch. Within the Pasierbiec Sandstone Fm at Osielec there is an olistostrome, rich in pebbles and cobbles of exotic rocks. In addition, large blocks of Neoproterozoic metabasites and boulders of Palaeogene organogenic limestones were found. The discovery of metabasites raised the possibility that the rocks in question could be evidence of supposed oceanic crust in the basement of the Magura sedimentary basin, because of the suggestion that they represent the Alpine orogenic cycle. This concept was abandoned when investigations of the absolute age of the metabasites gave a date of ca. 600 Ma. In the Osielec area, there are two tectonic thrust sheets in the Rača Subunit, namely the Osielczyk Thrust Sheet in the north and the Bystra Thrust Sheet in the south; they are folded and cut by a transverse system of strike-slip and oblique faults. The Osielczyk Thrust Sheet was overthrust northwards on to the Siary Subunit.