Gravity-flow dominated sedimentation on the Buda paleoslope (Hungary): Record of Late Eocene continental escape of the Bakony unit

Abstract

The Upper Eocene sequence of the Buda Hills consists of fluvial and shallow marine conglomerates, sandstones, bioclastic shallow-water limestone, marlstone and pelagicGlobigerina marl. The succession illustrates rapid, overall subsidence of the area, from terrestrial environments to bathyal depths. Sedimentation occurred on slopes situated on the flanks of synsedimentary basement antiforms. Vertical growth of antiforms caused progressive tilting of beds, layer-parallel extension by boudinage and faulting, and induced redeposition by mass flow. Antiforms are localised in the dextral Budaörs shear zone and in the Buda imbricate stack, which accommodated the dextral displacement. The latter is underlain by blind reverse faults probably merging into a detachment fault at shallow depths. These structures were formed by WNW-ESE oriented compression and NNE-SSW directed tension. The morphological expression of the imbricate stack is the SE-facing Buda slope.The Bakony unit, while “escaping” from the Alps, was bordered by a northern sinistral and a southern dextral shear zone. Synsedimentary tectonics in the Buda Hills demonstrates the style of deformation inside the escaping block, close to the southern border zone. Tectonically controlled sedimentation suggests that escape tectonics was active as early as Late Eocene time.