A high resolution sequence stratigraphie analysis of large-scale exposures in the Pecinov quarry (west--central Bohemia, Czech Republic) revealed a complex record of high frequency sea-level change in fluvial to estuarine deposits of late middle to late Cenomanian age. Within the investigated third-order sequence, four parasequences make up a transgressive systems tract and the highstand systems tract is represented by a single parasequence. The parasequences formed on a slowly subsiding basin margin in response to incremental eustatic sea-level rise. The parasequences, composed successively of fluvial, tide-dominated fluvial, supratidal marsh, tidal flat, and estuarine ebb tidal delta deposits, show extensive channelling and erosive features both within the parasequences and at the parasequence boundaries. Many of the channels incise into the underlying parasequences and superficially resemble sequence boundaries. However, sedimentological evidence indicates that the erosion took place on marine-flooding surfaces and their updip equivalents, due to landward translation of highly erosive environments. The most intense erosion was caused by subtidal currents.Because of the low subsidence rate, the preservation of parasequences was greatly affected by the channelling at most parasequence boundaries. Lateral and vertical extent of parasequences vary over distances of tens of metres. Architectural analysis of sedimentary bodies proved essential in sequence stratigraphic interpretation of the complicated and highly erosive fluvial to tide-dominated estuarine facies succession.
This study presents a synthesis of currently available data on the distribution of Cenomanian-age palaeodrainage systems in the Bohemian Cretaceous Basin, filled by fluvial and estuarine strata, and an interpretation of their relationships to the basement units and fault systems. Much of the progress, compared to previous studies, was made possible by a recent basin-scale evaluation of Cenomanian genetic sequence stratigraphy. Several local palaeodrainage systems developed in the basin, separated by drainage divides of local importance and one major divide -the Holice-Nové Město Palaeohigh -which separated the drainage basins of the Tethyan and Boreal palaeogeographic realms. The locations and directions of palaeovalleys were strongly controlled by the positions of inherited Variscan basement fault zones, whereas the bedrock lithology had the subordinate effect of narrowing or broadening valleys on more vs. less resistant substratum, respectively. The intrabasinal part of the palaeodrainage network followed the slopes toward the Labe (Elbe) System faults and was strongly dominated by the conjugate, NNE-trending, Jizera System faults and fractures. Outlet streams -ultimate trunk streams that drained the basin area -are interpreted to have followed the Lužice Fault Zone toward the Boreal province to the Northwest, and the Železné hory Fault Zone toward the Tethyan province to the Southeast. At both the northwestern and southeastern ends of the Bohemian Cretaceous Basin, shallow-marine or estuarine conditions are proven to have existed during the early Cenomanian. Direct evidence for syn-depositional subsidence during the early to mid-Cenomanian, fluvial to estuarine phase is very rare, and the onset of deposition by fluvial backfilling of the palaeodrainage systems was driven mainly by the long-term rise in global sea level. Subtle surface warping, mostly without detectable discrete faulting, is inferred to have been a response to the onset of the palaeostress regime that later, with further stress accumulation, led to subsidence in fault-bounded depocentres of the Bohemian Cretaceous Basin and uplift of new source areas. •
Please note that figures 9 and 10 on pages 571 and 572 have to be switched. The figure captions (Fig. 9, Fig 10) on these pages are printed in proper order. A wrong printing of faults occurred in Figure 11.
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