Phytogenic lacustrine sedimentation - oil shales in Neogene from Serbia, Yugoslavia

Abstract

Lacustrine basins of Neogene age in Serbia were formed either in intramountain valleys-graben and half-graben structures or in the marginal part of the Pannonian sea during Oligocene or at the beginning of Miocene, lasted and ended at the end of Miocene or Pliocene. The formation of the numerous depressions of the Balkan Peninsula, due to tectonic activity, gave lake basins with alluvial, swamp and lacustrine facies. The cycle with these facies was repeated several times. The lakes are mostly meromictic, often permanently stratified (oil-shale). A high rate of sedimentation with thickness up to 2000 m is characteristic for many of these basins. In many lakes phytogenic sedimentation occurs, giving facies with coal and with oil-shales. In this paper only some basins with oil-shales will be discussed, e.g. Valjevo-Mionica, Jadar and Pranjani basin. The characteristics of Vranje and Aleksinac basin will be discussed only in general. The organic rich sequences (oil shales) are characterized by the thin lamination, preservations of fish remains and plant leaves and absence of bioturbation, which needed permanent stratification of water body and anoxic conditions. Paleoclimatic regimes at the time of deposition and diagenesis were warm, subtropic with the changes of humid and dry periods.