THE PRE - FLYSCH AND BASAL SHALY FLYSCH DEPOSITION IN THE PARNASSUS - GHIONA ZONE, CENTRAL GREECE

Abstract

The interruption in deposition during the K/T transition in the Parnassus-Ghiona Zone caused the formation of hardgrounds and intraformational conglomerates in the central parts. During the later part of the early Paleocene to the middle or early part of the late Paleocene a shallow sea covered central Parnassus; stromatolites formed in broad valleys and phosphatic calcarenitic accumulations in small depressions. Subsequently, characteristic pre-flysch sediments composed of a mixture of autochthonous reworked Parnassian material with terrigenous input were deposited during the late Paleocene in small shallow-water basins with restricted water circulation. In the marginal areas the pre-flysch sediments consist of argillaceous limestones of Flaserkalke type deposited from the late Maastrichtian (except for a short interruption during the K/T transition giving rise to a carbonate brecciated horizon) to the late Paleocene in a deepening sea. The deposition of the shaly flysch that followed took place in hemipelagic to pelagic conditions during the late Paleocene in the margins, and during the Paleocene-Eocene transition in the central parts. Thus, it was not until the early Eocene that the Parnassian continental fragment subsided as a whole under a sea of shaly flysch deposition (red calcareous mudshales) that extended from the Sub-Pelagonian and Beotian Zones to the east, to the Vardousia subzone to the west. The source of terrigenous supply was probably the Pelagonian landmasses to the east.