1887

Abstract

The present day collage of various Silurian basin fragments in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) is the result of several orogenic and rifting/drifting episodes. The proper paleogeographic reconstruction of a single, very large Silurian flexural basin in the context of regional geology has a major impact on the ongoing unconventional shale gas exploration efforts in the broader region. The distal segments of a large Silurian foreland basin associated with the Caledonian collisional orogene, along the perimeter of the East European Craton, can be reasonably followed along strike from NW to SE, from Poland all the way to the Ukrainian Black Sea coast. The Upper Silurian basin sequence onlaps to the NE the various pre-Silurian and crystalline basement units. The Silurian basin of the CEE is interpreted here as a pro-foreland flexural basin, with short-lived (less than 15 m.y.) and extremely rapid (locally more than 1,500 m per m.y.!), accelerating subsidence histories recording only a portion of the orogenic history of the Caledonian orogeny. Besides the typical subsidence curves and prominent onlap onto the craton, the flexural origin is also supported by the general lack of normalfaulting within the basin, contradicting interpretations suggesting deposition on the passive margin of the Rheic Ocean. The map-view distribution of the lithofacies within the basin, such as clastic turbidites in the southwestern perimeter of the basin, deepwater shales in the center and neritic carbonates on the northeastern foreland margin, is also consistent with the flexural basin interpretation.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/papers/10.3997/2214-4609-pdb.380.72
2013-05-15
2024-03-29
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/papers/10.3997/2214-4609-pdb.380.72
Loading
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error