Geological Quarterly 

About: Geological Quarterly is an academic journal published by Polish Geological Institute. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Sedimentary rock & Devonian. It has an ISSN identifier of 1641-7291. It is also open access. Over the lifetime, 2243 publications have been published receiving 16955 citations.

The Variscan Orogen in Poland

Abstract: The structure and evolution of the Polish part of the Variscan Orogenic Belt is reviewed, based on published data and interpretations. The Sudetic segment of the Variscides, together with adjacent areas, experienced multi-stage accretion during successive collisional events that followed the closure of different segments of the Rheic Ocean. In SW Poland, Variscan tectono-stratigraphic units are tectonically juxtaposed and often bear record of contrasting exhumation/cooling paths, constrained by palaeontological and geochronological data. This points to the collage-type tectonics of this area. A three-partite subdivision of the Sudetes is proposed that reflects timing differences in deformation and exhumation of the respective segments. The Central, West and East Sudetes were deformed and amalgamated during the Middle/Late Devonian, at the turn from the Devonian to Carboniferous and during Early Carboniferous times, respectively. Problems in extending the classical tectono-stratigraphic zonation of the Variscides into the Sudetes are discussed and attributed to activity along Late Palaeozoic strike-slip faults and shear zones, disrupting and dispersing the initially more simply distributed tectono-stratigraphic units into the present-day structural mosaic. Relationships between the Variscan Externides and the foreland basin are explored. Sediments of the foreland basin locally onlap the external fold-and-thrust belt that had undergone an earliest Carboniferous partial tectono-thermal overprint. During the Late Carboniferous, the SW part of the foreland basin was heavily affected by thrusting and folding and incorporated into the Externides. During Westphalian C to Early Permian times, localized folding and thrusting affected the distal parts of the foreland basin, probably in response to dextral transpressional movements along NW-SE trending basement faults.

Late Jurassic-Miocene evolution of the Outer Carpathian fold-and-thrust belt and its foredeep basin (Western Carpathians, Poland)

Abstract: The Outer Carpathian Basin domain developed in its initial stage as a Jurassic-Early Cretaceous rifted passive margin that faced the eastern parts of the oceanic Alpine Tethys. Following closure of this oceanic basin during the Late Cretaceous and collision of the Inner Western Carpathian orogenic wedge with the Outer Carpathian passive margin at the Cretaceous-Paleocene transition, the Outer Carpathian Basin domain was transformed into a foreland basin that was progressively scooped out by nappes and thrust sheets. In the pre- and syn-orogenic evolution of the Outer Carpathian basins the following prominent periods can be distinguished: (1) Middle Jurassic-Early Cretaceous syn-rift opening of basins followed by Early Cretaceous post-rift thermal subsidence, (2) latest Cretaceous-Paleocene syn-collisional inversion, (3) Late Paleocene to Middle Eocene flexural subsidence and (4) Late Eocene-Early Miocene synorogenic closure of the basins. In the Outer Carpathian domain driving forces of tectonic subsidence were syn-rift and thermal post-rift processes, as well as tectonic loads related to the emplacement of nappes and slab-pull. Similar to other orogenic belts, folding of the Outer Carpathians commenced in their internal parts and progressed in time towards the continental foreland. This process was initiated at the end of the Paleocene at the Pieniny Klippen Belt/Magura Basin boundary and was completed during early Burdigalian in the northern part of the Krosno Flysch Basin. During Early and Middle Miocene times the Polish Carpathian Foredeep developed as a peripheral foreland basin in front of the advancing Carpathian orogenic wedge. Subsidence of this basin was controlled both by tectonic and sedimentary loads. The Miocene convergence of the Carpathian wedge with the foreland resulted in outward migration of the foredeep depocenters and onlap of successively younger deposits onto the foreland.

New perspectives on morphological variation in tridactyl footprints: clues to widespread convergence in developmental dynamics

Abstract: It is well-known that the phalangeal formulae of the feet of dinosaurs and other vertebrates are relatively consistent within any given clade. Indeed, such similarities are part of the basis for alpha taxonomy (e.g., bird and non-avian theropod relationships). Developmental studies of the vertebrate foot support the view that morphological similarity owes as much to intrinsic (formal) developmental dynamics as to extrinsic (functional) influences. Thus, the morphologies of ornithopod, non-avian theropod and most bird feet are convergent (especially with respect to digits II-IV) despite significant differences in size and functional adaptation. Despite these "general" convergences, "detailed" variation in the morphology of tridactyl, mesaxonic, Triassic through recent non-avian dinosaur and bird tracks has allowed the diagnosis of hundreds of ichnotaxa, as well as the recognition of nearly continuous subtle variation in modern bird tracks. Several studies characterize this variation by measuring how far digit III projects anteriorly beyond lateral digit IV and medial digit II, creating an "anterior triangle" between the tips of digits II, III and IV (Weems, 1992). Differences in this projection of digit III highlight a polarity between strong mesaxony (strong central tendency) and weak mesaxony (weak central tendency). Early studies (Olsen, 1980) suggested that as theropod tracks in the Grallator-Eubrontes plexus increase in size, they shift from narrow to wide and from strongly to weakly mesaxonic. However, such polarities also reiterate (independent of size) among medium-sized and diminutive theropod tracks (e.g., Minisauripus). Such polarity also recurs among ornithopods, and is equally striking in extant birds (e.g., between passerines and members of the charadriiformes). Such "intrinsic" differences can only be partially attributed to functional variation in digit divarication caused by foot-substrate interaction. Moreover, such polarities in foot morphology give important clues to whole limb and whole body proportions, and suggest an intrinsic "lawfulness" to patterns of convergence.

Structural inversion of the Pomeranian and Kuiavian segments of the Mid-Polish Trough -- lateral variations in timing and structural style

Abstract: Seven high-quality reflection-seismic lines, calibrated by wells, were interpreted in an effort to assess the timing of inversion and the structural configuration of the Pomeranian and Kuiavian segments of the Mid-Polish Trough. Seismostratigraphic analyses of the Upper Cretaceous successions imaged by these seismic lines in the NE and SW marginal troughs of the Mid-Polish Swell document important along-strike stratigraphic and structural changes. Thickness variations of the Upper Cretaceous series, combined with the development of erosional unconformities and associated tectonic deformations indicate that inversion movements commenced during the late Turonian and intermittently persisted into the Maastrichtian and Paleocene. Earliest inversion movements were focused on the margins of the Mid-Polish Trough where Mesozoic sequences are decoupled from the sub-Zechstein series by Zechstein salts. Whereas the NE margin of the Mid-Polish Trough is devoid of compressionally reactivated salt structures, its SW margin is characterized by strong inversion-related salt tectonics. Progressive inversion of the axial parts of the Mid-Polish Trough was accompanied by uplift of its pre-Zechstein floor to and above the level of flanking, non-inverted areas, and by deep truncation of Mesozoic series across the culmination of the evolving Mid-Polish Swell. Inversion movements ceased towards the end of the Paleocene, as evidenced by the burial of the Mid-Polish Swell beneath essentially flat lying Eocene and younger series. Turonian-Paleocene inversion of the Mid-Polish Trough is coeval with the inversion of the Bohemian Massif, the North German Basin and the Sorgenfrei-Tornquist Zone. Inversion of the Mid-Polish Trough is considered to have been controlled mainly by compressional intraplate stresses that built up in the Carpathian foreland during the collision of the Inner Carpathian orogenic wedge with the European passive margin, attesting to their increasing mechanical coupling, commencing during the Turonian. These stresses relaxed, however, with the end-Paleocene onset of imbrication of the Outer Carpathian domain, reflecting decoupling of the Carpathian orogenic wedge from its foreland.

Depositional evolution of the Holly Cross Mts. (Poland) in the Devonian and Carboniferous - a review

Abstract: The Devonian and Early Carboniferous succession in the Holy Mts. records a steady sea level rise and is bounded by major angular unconformities. The Lower Devonian is developed as a terrigenic sequence of complex, continental and shallow-marine facies. Growth of a shallow-marine platform in the Middle to Upper Devonian resulted in separation of two adjacent intrashelf basins. This central swell was stepwise transformed in a pelagic carbonate platform and influenced a pattern of facies and thickness after its completed drowning in the Visean. An impressive progress is noticed in understanding of sedimentation and stratigraphy of the carbonate succession, while recognition of depositional environments and regimes in the Devonian and Carboniferous clastics still remains a subject of several basic questions.