Facies architecture of the Cambrian deposits of the Baltica shelf in the Lublin Basin, SE Poland

Abstract

In the Cambrian, the Lublin Basin was a shallow-water area, located on the western edge of the Baltica palaeocontinent. The Cambrian sedimentary sequence, forming the lower part of the sedimentary cover of the North European Platform, is lithologically diversified and reflects dynamic variation in depositional environment. This paper presents the distribution of palaeofacies and sedimentary environments in the early Lublin Basin, including changes in their lateral extent during its evolution in the Cambrian. In order to evaluate the facies architecture of the Lublin Basin, a sedimentological analysis was carried out. On the basis of the detailed logging of drill cores, lithofacies made up of conglomerates, sandstones, mudstones and heterolithic deposits were distinguished; 16 lower-rank sublithofacies were identified. Their specific assemblages are indicative of shelf-type lithofacies associations, i.e. (1) tidal flat with muddy, mixed and sandy tidal plain sublithofacies including subtidal channels; (2) barrier–lagoon; (3) shoreface with lower, middle and upper shoreface subassociations; and (4) offshore with upper and lower offshore subassociations, including sandy tidal ridges. During the early Cambrian, the lateral variability and environmental succession indicate a transgressive, long-term trend and the migration of a lagoonal environment across wide tidal plains and the shoreface up to an offshore environment. The Lublin Basin reached its greatest lateral extent and maximum depth in the upper lower Cambrian. Next, an opposite trend began and during the middle Cambrian a regression cycle is recorded in successive changes in sedimentary environments that reflect a progressive shallowing. Multiple changes in adjacent environments indicate repeated and cyclical, lower-rank ingressions.