Provenance of Upper Cretaceous quartz-rich sandstones from the North Sudetic Synclinorium, SW Poland: constraints from detrital tourmaline

Abstract

J. (2012) -Prov e nance of Up per Cre ta ceous quartz-rich sand stones from the North Sudetic Synclinorium, SW Po land: constraints from de tri tal tour ma line. Geol. Quart., 56 (2): 315-332, doi: 10.7306/gq.1024Up per Cre ta ceous quartz arenites that fill the North Sudetic Synclinorium on the north ern pe riph ery of the Variscan Bo he mian Mas sif show high compositional but low tex tural ma tu rity. They have been in ter preted for years as de rived largely from nearby gran ite plutons, i.e. as first-cy cle sed i ments. A dif fer ent prov e nance was re vealed on the ba sis of a com bined light and heavy min eral anal y sis, and par ticu larly a de tri tal tour ma line study, given that tour ma line is a sen si tive in di ca tor of gra nitic/meta mor phic/sed i men tary (multi-re cy cling) or i gin. Cenomanian, Turonian, Coniacian and Santonian sand stones con tain abun dant an gu lar tour ma line grains, to gether with zir con and rutile, and subordinately staurolite, gar net, ana tase, kyan ite, sillimanite and monazite. The suc ces sive -Cenomanian to Santoniantour ma line pop u la tions are sim i lar with re gard to shape, col our and chem i cal com po si tion. The lat ter points un am big u ously to var i ous meta mor phic rocks with a pre dom i nant group of Al-rich metapelites (Al-rich, F-poor dravite). It is con cluded that, in the Late Cre taceous, large Sudetic gran ite plutons such as the Karkonosze and Strzegom-Sobótka mas sifs were not ex posed but were bur ied un der a thick siliciclastic cover. These re sults cou pled with pub lished ap a tite fis sion-track data from the gra nitic Karkonosze Pluton and the gneissic/migmatitic Góry Sowie Mas sif re veal that Late Cre ta ceous quartz arenites of the North Sudetic Synclinorium re flect grad ual exhu ma tion of the sur round ing mas sifs, but do not re cord the fi nal ex po sure of crys tal line rocks. Since the lat est Turonian, this ex hu ma tion cor re sponded to the Late Cre ta ceous in ver sion ep i sode in Cen tral Eu rope. The tex tural im ma tu rity of Up per Cre ta ceous sand stones is mis lead ing in terms of their re cy cled or i gin, and it is in her ited from im ma ture clastic source rocks.

Crustal lithology vs. thermal state and Moho heat flow across the NE part of the European Variscan orogen: a case study from SW Poland

“…In our profile, we do not include basanites, which are thin (100-200 m) and discontinuous. We approximate the sedimentary rocks of the North Sudetic Basin by quartz arenites, although in reality the rocks occurring in neighbouring outcrop (Jerzmanice) contain few vol% of feldspar and are classified as subarkosic arenites (Biernacka 2012). The Kaczawa Mts.…”

Tourmalines as a Tool in Provenance Studies of Terrigenous Material in Extra-Carpathian Albian (Uppermost Lower Cretaceous) Sands of Miechów Synclinorium, Southern Poland

“…These include pegmatites of the Szklary and Gogołów-Jordanów Massifs [35], granites and pegmatites in Tatra Mountains [35,125], mica schists of the Svratka Unit in the Czech Republic [34], quartz-sericite shales from Jegłowa in the eastern Sudetes [54] or some pegmatites [126] and marbles from the Bohemian Massif [60]. [17,18,22,55,58,[126][127][128][129][130]. Explanation for fields (1-8) the same as in Figure 8.…”

“…Therefore, the chemical analysis of heavy minerals seems to be a promising method in provenance studies of these rocks. Chemical compositions of heavy minerals have been successfully used in the provenance analysis of siliciclastic rocks and in determination of source areas in many places around the world [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. The heavy mineral content in the sandy Albian formation of southern Poland has not yet been subject to detailed examination.…”

Variability of trace element uptake in marine reptile bones from three Triassic sites (S Poland): Influence of diagenetic processes on the host rock and significance of the applied methodology

“…Exposed for a long time, i.e., until the Cenomanian transgression, which left~60 m of clastic deposits, the Triassic succession was subsequently covered by Turonian and Coniacian marine deposits (~200-250 m, and~150-470 m, respectively) and by Santonian clastics with brown coal intercalations (up to~500 m). The maximum thickness of the overburden that was reached during the Late Cretaceous may have exceeded 1000 m (Bałazińska and Bossowski, 1979;Marek and Pajchlowa, 1997;Biernacka, 2012).…”