Original paper
Late Cretaceous geodynamics of the northern sector of the Adriatic Carbonate Platform (W Slovenia)
Jež, Jernej; Otoničar, Bojan
Newsletters on Stratigraphy Volume 51 Number 4 (2018), p. 381 - 410
published: Sep 1, 2018
ArtNo. ESP026005104000, Price: 29.00 €
Abstract
The Albian to Maastrichtian sedimentary evolution and geodynamics of the northernmost sector of the Adriatic Carbonate Platform (AdCP) have been studied in five geological sections of western Slovenia. The Upper Cretaceous carbonate successions, which are up to 1200 m thick, were investigated and divided into eight lithostratigraphic units, each composed of several facies associations that represent specific depositional environments. Distinctive differentiation of sedimentary environments through time and across the investigated area indicate the interplay and predominance of certain internal (e.g.distance to the platform margin) and external factors (e.g.eustasy and tectonic conditions at adjacent plate margins) in the depositional evolution of the northern sector of the AdCP. As a result of compressional intra-plate horizontal stress induced by the orogenic pulses of the Albian to Coniacian Eoalpine orogeny, especially of its Turonian climax in the adjacent Austroalpine domain and contemporaneous middle Turonian onset of the subduction of the Adria plate beneath the European plate, intraplatform basins and subaerially exposed areas periodically dominated the topography of the northern sector of the AdCP. On the other hand, the effects of the generally accepted late Cenomanian/early Turonian OAE2 or related sea level rise and the subsequent late Turonian 3rd order sea level fall were simply superimposed over tectonically induced depositional trends. At the beginning of the Campanian the tectonic character of the northern sector of the AdCP changed from "static" flexural profiles related to compressional intra-plate horizontal stresses to an advancing flexural profile as the result of the vertical loading of the foreland lithospheric plate. Thus, the platform's marginal segment progressively subsided and was drowned and buried by the advancing pelagic marls and flysch in the Campanian and Maastrichtian.
Keywords
late cretaceous geodynamics • eustasy • w slovenia • tectonics • lithostratigraphic units • adriatic carbonate platform (adcp)