New data on the age and stratigraphic relationships of the Czajakowa Radiolarite Formation in the Pieniny Klippen Belt (Carpathians) based on the radiolarian biostratigraphy in the stratotype section

Abstract

The radiolarian biostratigraphy of the Middle–Upper Jurassic pelagic siliceous sediments (Czajakowa Radiolarite Formation) in the Niedzica succession of the Pieniny Klippen Belt (Carpathians) is interpreted in terms of their age in a stratotype section, and facies equivalents in other tectonic-facies units of this region. The siliceous sediments are represented by radiolarian cherts and silicified limestones which are underlain and overlain by red nodular limestones, equivalents of the Rosso Ammonitico facies. The radiolarian association includes thirty-seven taxa belonging to twenty one genera which represent the Northern Tethyan Palaeogeographic Province. Key radiolarians recorded provide a means of correlation with zonation schemes based on Unitary Associations defined for the Jurassic Tethyan sediments. The age of the Czajakowa Radiolarite Formation in the stratotype section is determined as U.A.Z.9 to U.A.Z.11 corresponding to middle Oxfordian up to Kimmeridgian. Comparison of radiolarian biozones from the stratotype section with other facial equivalent sections in the Pieniny Klippen Belt reveals a significant diachronism for both the lower and the upper limits of the Jurassic pelagic siliceous facies.