The Štramberk Limestone (Tithonian-lower Berriasian) was developed on a northerly located, isolated intra-Tethyan carbonate platform. It is composed of various facies that can be observed in olistoliths and blocks embedded in the Cretaceous flysch of the Outer Carpathians in Moravia (Czech Republic). Corals, microbialites, microencrusters and synsedimentary cements contributed on various scales to the reef framework. The importance of corals and some microencrusters to the formation of the Štramberk reef complex is well recognized, while other components received less attention in previous studies. Two end members of boundstone types are described from the Kotouč Quarry, near Štramberk. Boundstone type A is dominated by phaceloid (branching-type) corals, encrusted by microbialites and microencrusters, in particular photophile species ("Lithocodium-Bacinella", Koskinobullina socialis Cherchi et Schroeder, Iberopora bodeuri Granier et Berthou). Boundstone type B is composed of microencrusters, microbialites and synsedimentary isopachous fibrous cements, while corals are absent or subordinate. Microencrusters [Crescentiella morronensis (Crescenti), Labes atramentosa Eliášová, Perturbatacrusta leini Schlagintweit et Gawlick, Radiomura cautica Senowbari-Daryan et Schäfer, thin encrusting calcified sponges] are main biotic components of the microencruster-cement boundstone. Some identified microencrusters are known only or mostly from intra-Tethyan carbonate platforms. Except for C. morronensis, other common microencrusters in the coral-microbial boundstone (type A) are rare in the microencruster-cement boundstone (type B). The depositional setting of boundstone type A corresponds to a low-energy environment of an inner platform. Boundstone type B, until now not recognized in the Štramberk Limestone, was developed in a high-energy, upper fore-reef slope environment. Other important facies in the Kotouč Quarry are reef-derived breccias: matrix-supported breccia and clast-supported breccia with radiaxial-fibrous cement (showing some similarities to Triassic "evinosponges" cement), interpreted as being dominantly synsedimentary (pre-burial). The preliminary studies by the present authors, supported by observations under cathodoluminescence, highlight the significance of synsedimentary cementation for the formation of a boundstone framework (type B) and the stabilization of fore-reef, slope deposits.
Limestones designated the Štramberk-type are the most common carbonate exotic clasts (exotics) embedded in the uppermost Jurassic-Miocene flysch deposits of the Polish Outer Carpathians. About 80% of stratigraphically determinable carbonate exotics from the Silesian, Sub-Silesian and Skole units (nappes) are of Tithonian (mostly)-Berriasian (sporadically Valanginian) age. A study of these exotics revealed eight main facies types: coral-microbial boundstones (FT 1), microencruster-microbial-cement boundstones (FT 2), microbial and microbial-sponge boundstones (FT 3), detrital limestones (FT 4), foraminiferal-algal limestones (FT 5), peloidalbioclastic limestones (FT 6), ooid grainstones (FT 7), and mudstones-wackestones with calpionellids (FT 8). Štramberk-type limestones in Poland and the better known Štramberk Limestone in the Czech Republic are remnants of lost carbonate platforms, collectively designated the Štramberk Carbonate Platform. Narrow platforms were developed on intra-basinal, structural highs (some of them are generalized as the Silesian Ridge), with their morphology determined by Late Jurassic synsedimentary tectonics. An attempt was made to reconstruct the facies distribution on the Tithonian-earliest Cretaceous carbonate platform. In the inner platform, coral-microbial patch-reefs (FT 1) grew, while the upper slope of the platform was the depositional setting for the microencruster-microbial-cement boundstones (FT 2). Microbial and microbial-sponge boundstones (FT 3), analogous to the Oxfordian-Kimmeridgian boundstones of the northern Tethyan shelf (also present among exotics), were developed in a deeper setting. In the inner, open part of the platform, foraminiferal-algal limestones (FT 5) and peloidal-bioclastic limestones (FT 6) were deposited. Poorly sorted, detrital limestones (FT 4), including clastsupported breccias, were formed mainly in a peri-reefal environment and on the margin of the platform, in a high-energy setting. Ooid grainstones (FT 7), rarely represented in the exotics, were formed on the platform margin. Mudstones-wackestones with calpionellids (FT 8) were deposited in a deeper part of the platform slope and/or in a basinal setting. In tectonic grabens, between ridges with attached carbonate platforms, sedimentation of the pelagic (analogous to FT 8) and allodapic ("pre-flysch") Cieszyn Limestone Formation took place. The most common facies are FT 4 and FT 1. Sedimentation on the Štramberk Carbonate Platform terminated in the earliest Cretaceous, when the platform was destroyed and drowned. It is recorded in a few exotics as thin, neptunian dykes (and large dykes in the Štramberk Limestone), filled with dark, deep-water limestones. Reefal facies of the Štramberk Carbonate Platform share similarities in several respects (e.g., the presence of the microencrustermicrobial-cement boundstones) with reefs of other intra-Tethyan carbonate platforms, but clearly differ from palaeogeographically close reefs and coral-bearing facies of the epicontinental Tethyan shelf (e.g., coeval lim...
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