Environmental stress in the northern Tethys during the Paleogene: a review of foraminiferal and geochemical records from the Polish Outer Carpathians

Abstract

Olszewska, B., Szyd³o, A., 2017. En vi ron men tal stress in the north ern Tethys dur ing the Paleogene: a re view of foraminiferal and geo chem i cal re cords from the Pol ish Outer Carpathians. Geo log i cal Quar terly, 61 (3): 682-695, doi: 10.7306/gq.1369 Dur ing the Paleogene, the area of the north ern Tethys was con trolled by a tur bid ity sys tem stim u lated by di a strophic and geodynamic pro cesses. These fac tors con trib uted to the dis per sion and rapid ox y gen a tion of or ganic de bris. Its ac cu mu lation was a con se quence of stag nant bot tom wa ter con di tions that pe ri od i cally oc curred in the ba sin. In these pe ri ods, in tense de com po si tion in ten si fied by hy dro ther mal and diagenetic pro cesses was as so ci ated with ox y gen con sump tion and the release of green house gases, which led to hypoxia and acid i fi ca tion. These phe nom ena in ten si fied by ther mal and den sity strat i fi ca tion had a ma jor im pact on the struc ture, evo lu tion and dis tri bu tion of biota. Stress as so ci ated with rap idly chang ing con di tions in duced by sed i men tary pro cess and upwelling re sulted in the dom i nance of forms that col o nized most sed i ments (Glomospira, Ammodiscus, Recurvoides, Rzehakina) and sur face wa ters (Guembelitria, Chiloguembelina, Globanomalina, Globigerina, Cassigerinella, Catapsydrax). At the time, foraminifera were lim ited to low-di ver si fied eutrophic as sem blages or were mainly re placed by si li ceous phytoplankton (radio lar ians and di a toms). Geo chem i cal data con firm that en vi ron men tal cri ses in the Paleogene ba sin took place un der chang ing ther mal con di tions that re flect global events (KTBE, PTME, EEOC and TTE). Ther mal stress fa vour ing the for ma tion of cer tain min er als or rocks oc ca sion ally oc curred dur ing the Paleocene to Eocene (sid er ite, phos phates) and dom i nated in the Early Oligocene (sil ica).

Carbonate and siliceous rock horizons at the boundary of Eocene and Oligocene deposits in the Ukrainian Carpathians as geotourism sites

“…Climate cooling at the turn of the Late Eocene -Early Oligocene has been established by the results of various geochemical studies, including the study of the isotopic composition of oxygen and carbon, in many regions of the world.Flysch deposits of the Polish Outer Carpathians (Olszewska, Szydło, 2017), carbonate deposits of Tanzania (Pearson, etal., 2008) and the Central Mediterranean (Cornacchiaa, etal., 2018), otoliths of mollusks of the coastal plain of the Gulf of Mexico (Ivany, etal, 2000), findings of tooth enamel of large, water-dependent, herbivorous terrestrial mammals of southwestern Europe (Kocsis etal., 2014), North American paleosoils (Sheldon, etal., 2002) were studied in this context.…”

“…Kuźniarin 1952, diatoms migrated into the Menilite basin with currents from the North Sea. The appearance of siliceous rock horizons (sherts) in Lower Menilite sediments is associated with the cooling of the climate in the early Oligocene (Olszewska, Szydło, 2017).…”

Agglutinated Foraminiferal Acmes and Their Role in the Biostratigraphy of the Campanian–Eocene Outer Carpathians

“…Abundant "A." latus are known from the middle-upper Eocene [40,108]. The species was reported from the Silesian Nappe [41,54,82], from the Skole Nappe [30,76], from the Dukla Nappe [72] and from the Magura Nappe [19,26,109].…”

Palynofacies analysis, sedimentology and hydrocarbon potential of the Menilite Beds (Oligocene) in the Slovakian and Romanian Outer Carpathians

“…Ac cord ing to the ma jor ity of con cep tual mod els, this process may have ter mi nated with the subduction of the Eu ro pean Plat form mar gin un der a group of microplates, co in ci dent with the com plete clo sure of the Tethys Ocean. This, in turn, resulted in the de for ma tion and imbrication of strata ac cu mu lated within the so-called Outer Carpathian Ba sin (Jankowski, 2015;Olszewska and Szyd³o, 2017), the Carpathian Fore land Ba sin (e.g., Grasu et al, 1999;Puglisi et al, 2006;Miclãuº et al, 2009), or the Outer Carpathian Ocean (Golonka et al, 2006) and their par tial overthrusting onto the plat form (Mahe¾ and Buday, 1968;Ksi¹¿kiewicz, 1972;Mahe¾, 1974). Tra di tion ally, in its west ern ex tent the Carpathian Orogen is sub di vided into the In ner Carpathians and the Outer Carpathians (see Mahe¾ and Buday, 1968;Ksi¹¿kiewicz, 1972).…”