Occurrence of Upper Cretaceous pelagic carbonates within ophiolite-related pillow basalts in the Mt. Kozara area of the Vardar zone western belt, northern Bosnia

Abstract

Deformed lenses of red silty micrite interstratified with basaltic pillow lavas outcrop at the confluence of the River Crna Reka and Krvavac Creek on Mt. Kozara in northern Bosnia. Interbedded pelagic carbonates contain microfossils, notably several species of Globotruncana, of Upper Santonian–Lower Campanian age. The pillow lavas and sediments form part of ~ 50 km 2 tectonically emplaced body of mafic igneous rocks, composed of pillow lava, sheeted diabase and minor gabbro. This body is tectonically emplaced within melange of the Vardar zone western belt. The basic igneous body has been interpreted as the upper part of an ophiolite that was tectonically emplaced when Neotethys finally closed during latest Cretaceous time. Accordingly, the Late Cretaceous age of the interbedded pelagic sediments, as reported here, indicates that oceanic crust still existed in this region of the Tethyan orogen during Late Cretaceous time.