Palaeogeographic Variability and Depositional Environments of the Upper Jurassic Carbonate Rocks of Velika Kapela Mt. (Gorski Kotar Area, Adriatic Carbonate Platform, Croatia)

Abstract

Synsedimentary tectonics caused significant differentiation of sedimentary environments of the Adriatic Carbonate Platform during the Kimmeridgian. The most important changes have been recorded in W and central Croatia: along the NW part in present day W Istria there was an emergence with bauxite deposits, while along the NE margin of the platform, in the Karlovac area, a former emerged area was submerged.
Penecontemporaneously between these areas, in the wider area of Velika Kapela Mt., a shallow intraplatform trough was formed, characterised by deposition of dark mudstones with nodules and thin layers of cherts and thin interbeds of tuffs in the upper part of the succession. Occurrences of planktonic foraminifera, radiolarians, calcisphaeres and rare ammonites indicate the sporadic influence of the open sea. Along the margins of the trough, peri-reefal environments were established, with flourishing developments of different reef-building organisms – hydrozoans, stromatoporoids, corals and bryozoans.
Reefs were continuously destroyed, and in this way derived material was reworked and transported towards the trough slopes. An enormous quantity of this material caused progradation towards the deeper central part of the area, which was gradually infilled and narrowed.
In the final phase, the trough was completely infilled, and peri-reefal environments gradually disappeared, since they were covered by ooid bars, culminating in the establishment of shallow environments
over the entire area.
A similar situation was recorded in another contemporaneous, also tectonically formed environment – the Lemeš trough, stretching from the vicinity of Bihać in NW Bosnia towards the south into Croatia, into E Lika and N Dalmatia. This trough had direct communication with the open Tethys realm, and thin-bedded and platy limestones with chert and pelagic organisms, including common ammonites, were deposited within it. The Lemeš trough was also surrounded by coral–hydrozoan reefs, and it was infilled by the same depositional processes as the neighbouring trough in the area of Velika Kapela Mt., and finally covered by shallow-water deposits.
Although both troughs were probably formed by the same tectonic act, and had approximately the same duration – during the Kimmeridgian and Early Tithonian – they differ according to their palaeogeographic and facies characteristics. The trough investigated in the Velika Kapela Mt. was isolated, surrounded by shallow-marine platform environments, and had only temporary, indirect contact with the open sea. The Lemeš trough had a continuous connection with the open sea, as indicated by the relatively rich assemblages of pelagic organisms, especially ammonites, and is characterised by abundant cherts. However, both troughs are characterised by similar depositional sequences: both are underlain and overlain by shallow-water carbonate deposits, and they represent a consequence of a specific depositional event caused by tectonic deformation (formation of pull-apart basins) within the inner part of the Adriatic Carbonate Platform.