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Middle Triassic carbonate-platform break-up and formation of small-scale half-grabens (Julian and Kamnik–Savinja Alps, Slovenia)

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Abstract

In the Julian Alps (Mt. Prisojnik, NW Slovenia) and in the Kamnik–Savinja Alps (Mt. Križevnik, N Slovenia), both of which form part of the eastern Southern Alps, several meters of Upper Anisian pelagic red nodular, radiolarian-rich limestone (Loibl Formation) were deposited on the drowned platform carbonates of the Contrin Formation. The time of the platform drowning is dated with radiolarians and conodonts to the Illyrian, more precisely to the upper part of the Paraceratites trinodosus Ammonoid Zone. The red limestone is overlain by pyroclastics and volcanics (rhyolites) or carbonate (mega)breccia (Uggowitz Formation). The following unit consists of thin-bedded limestone, grainstone and subordinate marl (Buchenstein Formation) deposited during the final filling of the basin from the adjacent prograding carbonate platform (Schlern Formation) in the Ladinian. Map-scale geometry, neptunian dykes, the onset of volcanism, the presence of (mega)breccia and related paleo-escarpments, the lateral variations in thickness and the wedge-shaped geometry of the lithological units provide evidence of syn-sedimentary block faulting and the formation of small-scale, relatively shallow half-grabens within the previously uniform Slovenian Carbonate Platform. This analysis indicates a clear tectonic control over the development of the Middle Triassic stratigraphy. The described extensional event is well correlated and genetically connected with the syn-rift formation of the neighboring Slovenian Basin and other Southern Alpine basins that formed in connection with the opening of the Meliata-Maliac branch of the Neotethys Ocean.

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Acknowledgments

Funding for this work was provided by the research programmes P1-0011 and P1-0008 of the Slovenian Research Agency. Facilities and technical staff of the Geological Survey of Slovenia are gratefully acknowledged. We thank Dragica Turnšek for the determination of corals, Olga Piros for the determination of algae and Heinz Kozur for the discussion about conodonts. We are much obliged to Attila Vörös and to an anonymous reviewer, as well as to the editor Maurice E. Tucker for their critical reading and valuable suggestions.

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  1. Geological Survey of Slovenia, Dimičeva ulica 14, 1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Bogomir Celarc & Tea Kolar-Jurkovšek

  2. Ivan Rakovec Institute of Paleontology, ZRC SAZU, Novi trg 2, 1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Špela Goričan

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  1. Bogomir Celarc
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Celarc, B., Goričan, Š. & Kolar-Jurkovšek, T. Middle Triassic carbonate-platform break-up and formation of small-scale half-grabens (Julian and Kamnik–Savinja Alps, Slovenia). Facies 59, 583–610 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10347-012-0326-0

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