Facies and sedimentation of Coniacian deposits of the Kraków Swell in the Wielkanoc area (southern Poland)

Abstract

Coniacian deposits, ca. 1.5 m thick, cropping out in the Wielkanoc Quarry, north of Krakow in southern Poland, consist of firm, nodular and, less commonly, marly limestones with horizons of in situ, slightly phosphatized hexactinellid sponges and thick-shelled inoceramid bivalves. The succession is composed of foraminiferal-inoceramid packstones with common sand-sized quartz and glauconite grains at the base, passing upwards into foraminiferal or foraminiferal-inoceramid wackestones with or without rare glauconite. A microfacies analysis shows that planktonic foraminifers are the dominant forms, while benthic forms are rare. The facies indicates that sedimentation in the Wielkanoc area on the Krakow Swell, which separated the deeper Mid-Polish Trough Zone to the north-east and the Opole Trough Zone to the south-west, was generally calm (documented by abundant wackestones) and slow (indicated by the dominant sedimentary “coccolith system” and presence of glauconite) during the Coniacian. Rare episodes of non-deposition are recorded by episodes of phosphatization and minor intra-Coniacian discontinuity surfaces. The presence of hexactinellid sponges in the section studied are consistent with a calm environment, below the storm-wave base, with low rates of sedimentation. Subhercynian (latest Turonian–Coniacian Ilsede Phase) local tectonic movements had an important influence on the evolution of the region. They presumably led to subsidence of the Wielkanoc Block during the Early Coniacian. These movements were probably associated with activity on the Krakow–Myszkow Fault Zone