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Geochemical characteristics of the Upper Cretaceous to Lower Eocene sedimentary rocks from the Pieniny Klippen Belt (Western Carpathians, Slovakia): implications for tectonic setting, paleoenvironment and paleoclimate

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Abstract

This paper presents geochemical data on sedimentary rocks from the Upper Cretaceous to Lower Eocene formations of the Pieniny Klippen Belt (Western Carpathians, Slovakia). On the basis of geochemical analyses of 15 samples, the plate tectonic setting of sediment accumulation and paleodepositional environment were reconstructed, which may help to understand a part of evolution of this orographically remarkable zone. Four main rock groups were identified within the samples studied: fine- to medium-grained sandstones, siltstones or claystones, pebbly/sandy mudstones and shales. In the Al2O3*5-SiO2-CaO*2 ternary diagram, they displayed developed sand and mud flat characteristics with light rich clay content. According to high-silica and lowsilica multi-dimensional diagrams, the investigated rocks might have originated from a continental collision tectonic setting. The Zr/Rb values (0.76–6.47) mirrored a fluctuation of hydro energy during deposition of the sediments studied. Paleoclimate indexes, such as the C-value (0.03–0.49) and Sr/Cu (3.25–202.27), revealed arid to semiarid climatic conditions during deposition of the studied sediments. In addition, the chemical data were used to constrain paleoredox conditions of the depositional environment, which proved that these sediments had been deposited mainly beneath the oxic water column with relatively low paleoproductivity, as evidenced by P/Ti with an average of 0.13 and Ba/Al with an average of 34.30.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to two anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions and thoughtful comments. This study was financially supported by the Scientific Grant Agency of the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic and the Slovak Academy of Sciences (VEGA 2/0028/17). Moreover, this work was supported by the Slovak Research and Development Agency under the contracts Nos. APVV-0212-12 and APVV-17-0170.

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  1. Geological Division, Earth Science Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, 840 05, Slovakia

    Marek Vd’ačný

  2. Geophysical Division, Earth Science Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Banská Bystrica, 974 01, Slovakia

    Jozef Madzin

  3. Department of Geology and Paleontology, Faculty of Natural Sciences of the Comenius University in Bratislava, Bratislava, 842 15, Slovakia

    Dušan Plašienka

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Vd’ačný, M., Madzin, J. & Plašienka, D. Geochemical characteristics of the Upper Cretaceous to Lower Eocene sedimentary rocks from the Pieniny Klippen Belt (Western Carpathians, Slovakia): implications for tectonic setting, paleoenvironment and paleoclimate. Geosci J 23, 731–745 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12303-018-0071-7

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