Neogene changes in palaeogeography, palaeoenvironment and the provenance of sediment in the Northern Danube Basin

Abstract

The Danube Basin is situated between the Eastern Alps, Central Western Carpathians and Transdanubian Range. The northwestern embayment of the basin is represented by the Blatné depression with deposits ranked into the Langhian-Serravallian (Badenian, Sarmatian) and Tortonian-Pliocene (Pannonian-Pliocene). They are documented by the NN4, NN5 and NN6 calcareous nannoplankton zones; the CPN7 and CPN8 foraminiferal zones (equivalent to N9, N10 and N11 of global foraminiferal zones and to the MMi4a, MMi5 and MMi6 of Mediterranean foraminiferal zones) and by the mammalian zones MN9, MN10, MN13 and by Be isotopes. Sedimentation in basin began with basal conglomerates formed by local fan-deltas short before and during the initial rifting phase. Early Langhian conglomerates are composed of Mesozoic rocks derived from the sedimentary cover and nappe units of the Eastern Alps and Central Western Carpathians. The content of crystalline rocks increases upwards, which documents a continual denudation of the emerged source area (at present forming the pre-Neogene basement of the Danube Basin). The middle to late Langhian synrift stage of the basin development was accompanied by volcanic activity. Gravity transport of sediment took place on the basin slopes formed by pronounced fault activity. The basin floor reached the deep neritic zone. During the early Serravallian shelfal offshore sedimentary conditions prevailed and gradually passed into the late Serravallian regressive coastal plains with normal to brackish salinity. Tortonian transgressive sedimentation on the muddy shelves of Lake Pannon followed and was subsequently replaced by a relatively short-living deltaic environment and later by deposition on an alluvial plain. Final Pliocene to Quaternary fluvial sedimentation is characterized by gravel and sand beds. •

Timing of Langhian bioevents in the Carpathian Foredeep and northern Pannonian Basin in relation to oceanographic, tectonic and climatic processes

“…In ac cor dance with our ob ser va tions, Praeorbulina sicana and P. glomerosa have been re corded only dis con tin uously through out the Cen tral Paratethys in the time in ter val before the FO of Orbulina. Both spe cies have been rarely found in the Styrian Ba sin (Spezzaferri et al, 2009;Hohenegger et al, 2009a), the Al pine Foredeep Ba sin (Aus trian Mollase Ba sin; AEoriae et al, 2004), the Dan ube Ba sin (Rybár et al, 2015(Rybár et al, , 2016, the South Slo vak Ba sin (Vass et al, 2007) and the Pol ish part of the CF (Oszczypko and Oszczypko-Clowes, 2012). This in terval cor re sponds to lo cal biozone of Globigerinoides sicanus (Cicha et al, 1975).…”

Late Miocene fluvial distributary system in the northern Danube Basin (Pannonian Basin System): depositional processes, stratigraphic architecture and controlling factors of the Piešťany Member (Volkovce Formation)

“…15A). They are prob a bly con nected to an im por tant transtensional fault sys tem, the ac tiv ity of which led to ac cu mu la tion of a mid dle Mio cene suc ces sion up to 3 km thick dur ing the syn-rift sub si dence in this part of the ba sin (Kováè, 2000;Rybár et al, 2015Rybár et al, , 2016. The base of the Ce no zoic is asym met ri cal with a more el e vated NE mar gin.…”

“…started to ac cu mu late in a shal low brack ish lac us trine en vi ron ment prob a bly from 11.6-11.4 Ma ( Fig. 2; Kováè et al, 2006;Rybár et al, 2016). The shal low lac us trine de po si tion was fol lowed by de po si tion of the deltaic Beladice For ma tion that in cludes prodelta, delta front and shoreface, delta plain and la goonal fa cies.…”

“…1B; Rybár et al, 2015Rybár et al, , 2016. Af ter in tense rift ing dur ing the Langhian (lower Badenian), the rate of sub si dence grad u ally de creased.…”

“…The shal low lac us trine de po si tion was fol lowed by de po si tion of the deltaic Beladice For ma tion that in cludes prodelta, delta front and shoreface, delta plain and la goonal fa cies. The Beladice For mation typ i cally con tains a mix ture of brack ish and fresh wa ter molluscs and ostracods (Baráth et al, 1999;Rybár et al, 2016). Pre cise tim ing of the fi nal Lake Pannon shore line re gres sion in the Blatné de pres sion was pro posed to be ~10.0 Ma (Sztanó et al, 2016;Šujan et al, 2016).…”