New 40Ar/39Ar, fission track and sedimentological data on a middle Miocene tuff occurring in the Vienna Basin: Implications for the north-western Central Paratethys region

Abstract

The Kuchyňa tuff is found on the Eastern margin of the Vienna Basin and was formed by felsic volcanism. The Ar/Ar single grain sanidine method was applied and resulted in an age of 15.23±0.04 Ma, which can be interpreted as the age of the eruption. The obtained numerical age is in accordance with the subtropical climate inferred by the presence of fossil leaves that originated in an evergreen broadleaved forest. Furthermore, the described volcanism was connected with the syn-rift stage of the back-arc Pannonian Basin system. The sedimentological data from the underlying sandy mudstones indicate alluvial environment what confirms terrestrial conditions during deposition. Moreover, the tuff deposition probably occurred shortly before the Badenian transgression of the Central Paratethys Sea.

Tephrostratigraphy and Magma Evolution Based on Combined Zircon Trace Element and U-Pb Age Data: Fingerprinting Miocene Silicic Pyroclastic Rocks in the Pannonian Basin

“…Lukács et al (2018a) distinguished at least five major eruptions in the BVF (17.5 ± 0.3 Ma Eger ignimbrite, 17.055 ± 0.024 Ma Mangó ignimbrite, 16.816 ± 0.059 Ma Bogács unit, 14.880 ± 0.014 Ma Demjén ignimbrite and 14.358 ± 0.015 Ma Harsány ignimbrite based on pooling of the youngest zircon population in each unit). These eruptions provided significant volume of erupted material covering extensive areas across the Pannonian Basin and elsewhere in Europe (e.g., Lukács et al, 2018a;Rocholl et al, 2018;Rybár et al, 2019;Sant et al, 2020). These eruption products act as important marker layers in the early to mid-Miocene and could help to constrain the regional Paratethys chronostratigraphy used in central Europe.…”

“…The Pannonian Basin (eastern-central Europe; Figure 1) produced among the largest silicic volcanic eruptions in Europe for the last 20 Myr (Lukács et al, 2018a). Volcanic ash material was deposited throughout central and southern Europe (e.g., Rocholl et al, 2018;Lukács et al, 2018a;Rybár et al, 2019;Sant et al, 2020) and therefore plays an important role in constraining the regional Paratethys chronostratigraphy in this area (Steininger et al, 1988;Sant et al, 2017). Based on a thorough zircon-based study, Lukács et al (2018a) could identify at least five major eruption events from 18.2 Ma to 14.4 Ma mostly sourced around the southern foreland of the Bükk Mts., called Bükkalja Volcanic Field (BVF; Northern Hungary, Figure 1).…”

Miocene syn-rift evolution of the North Croatian Basin (Carpathian–Pannonian Region): new constraints from Mts. Kalnik and Požeška gora volcaniclastic record with regional implications

“…13). In addition, Rybár et al (2019) derived an (eruption) age of 15.23 ± 0.32 Ma by Ar/ Ar dating sanidines from Kuchyňa tuff of the Vienna Basin (Fig. 13; see also Sant et al 2020).…”

“…In addition, no geochemical data exist for Hörmsdorf-2 tuff of the Styrian Basin (Handler et al 2006). Rybár et al (2019) presented both whole-rock and volcanic glass geochemical compositions of the Kuchyňa tuff of the Vienna basin, which is coeval with ŠKR-12 volcaniclastic rocks. The major element compositions of volcanic glasses of these coeval rhyolitic (~ 77 wt% SiO 2 ) volcaniclastic deposits is similar (Supplementary Table Data 1; Rybár et al 2019).…”

“…Rybár et al (2019) presented both whole-rock and volcanic glass geochemical compositions of the Kuchyňa tuff of the Vienna basin, which is coeval with ŠKR-12 volcaniclastic rocks. The major element compositions of volcanic glasses of these coeval rhyolitic (~ 77 wt% SiO 2 ) volcaniclastic deposits is similar (Supplementary Table Data 1; Rybár et al 2019). However, to resolve if the ŠKR-12 and Kuchyňa volcaniclastic rocks were derived from the same volcanic source and produced by the same eruption event, additional trace element composition of volcanic glass is required (Harangi et al 2005;Lowe 2011;Kutterolf et al 2014;Lowe et al 2017;Schindlbeck et al 2018;Hopkins and Seward 2019) as these are not available for the Kuchyňa tuff.…”