Palynostratigraphy and palynofacies of the Upper Silesian Keuper (southern Poland)

Abstract

The results of the palynostratigraphical studies presented in this paper come from five boreholes Patoka 1, Czarny Las, Woźniki Śląskie K1, Kobylarz 1 and Poreba as well as from four outcrops at Lipie Śląskie, Patoka, Zawiercie and Poreba, in Upper Silesia (southern Poland). The palynostratigraphical zonation presented by Orlowska-Zwolinska (1983) for the epicontinental Upper Triassic of Poland was applied. The palynomorph spectra are marked by different preservation states, combined with the frequent occurrence of reworked specimens, probably even from Palaeozoic strata. The spore-pollen assemblage recognized in the “Chrzanow Formation” belongs to the early Carnian verrucata Subzone of the palynological longdonensis Zone. The spectrum from the Stuttgart Formation represents the Carnian astigmosus Zone. Spectra in the Patoka Marly Mudstone-Sandstone Member (Grabowa Mudstone-Carbonate Formation), with the Lisowice bone-bearing horizon, represent the middle and late Norian meyeriana b Subzone. The Rhaetian age of the bone-bearing succession in the Lisowice–Lipie Śląskie clay-pit suggested in the literature was not confirmed. The age of assemblages from the “Polomia Formation”, which overlies the Patoka Member, was not determined, owing to the poor state of miospore preservation. Moreover, three types of palynofacies were recognized as being characteristic for a fluvial channel (1), a flood plain (2), and lacustrine and playa environments (3) as well as for an undetermined milieu. Type 1 was found in the deposits of the Stuttgart Formation, the Patoka Member and the “Polomia Formation”, type 2 in the Patoka Member and the “Polomia Formation”, type 3 in the “Chrzanow Formation”, the Stuttgart Formation and the Patoka Member.