Geologos, 2009, 15, 3-4.
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Item Palynology of the Palaeogene and Neogene from the Warmia and Mazury areas (NE Poland)(Bogucki Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 2009) Słodkowska, BarbaraPollen, phytoplankton and microfauna from the Palaeogene and Neogene of two boreholes in NE Poland have been studied. Borehole Klucznik 1 is located in the Warmia area, and borehole Sąpłaty 3 borehole in the Mazury area. The oldest palynomorph assemblage comes from the Klucznik sediments; it consists of phytoplankton from the Early Palaeocene (Danian) D1 and D2 dinocyst zone, and from the Selandian D3 zone. The Eocene is present in the both the Klucznik and the Sąpłaty successions. The Middle Eocene assemblage has been dated as late Bartonian and belongs to the D11 dinocyst zone. The Late Eocene (Priabonian) D12 dinocyst zone is also present in both boreholes. Sporomorphs of a Late Eocene palynomorph assemblage point on the proximity of land and on terrestrial vegetation. The dinocyst zone D13, characteristic for the earliest Oligocene (‘Latdorfian’) has been found in both profiles as well. A Neogene sporomorph assemblage dating from the Middle Miocene (Early Serravallian) occurs only in the Sąpłaty profile. This sporomorph assemblage is correlated with pollen zone VIII. Pollen zone IX is present in the uppermost part of the Middle Miocene (Middle Serravallian). Late Miocene deposits (Late Tortonian) with pollen zone XI are present, too. The Miocene deposits accumulated in densely vegetated swamps, resulting now in the occurrence of lignite. The sedimentary conditions in the Warmia and Mazury regions were identical during the Neogene and Palaeogene, implying that both provinces belonged at the time to one sedimentary basin.Item Neotectonics induced by ice-sheet advances in NE Poland(Bogucki Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 2009) Morawski, WojciechDifferences in the geological structure of the hard-rock substratum of the Warmia and Mazury regions (NE Poland) resulted during the Pleistocene in different reactions on the load exerted by the land-ice masses. In the (western) Warmia province, vertical glacio-isostatic movements caused cyclic erosional events affecting the relatively thick sedimentary cover, which became more compacted. In contrast, the thinner sedimentary cover of the rigid crystalline basement favoured quiet sedimentation in the (eastern) Mazury province. The zone in between these two areas runs NNE-SSW for some 80 km. It is several kilometres wide and is composed of landforms that owe their origin to the sedimentary infilling of crevasses. This intermediate zone formed an interlobe are between the two huge ice lobes that covered the Warmia and Mazury areas during the last ice age. The basement of the zone coincides with the crystalline craton slope, which is accompanied to the west by a parallel marginal trough. Cyclic advances and retreats of the Pleistocene ice sheet induced neotectonic mobility. Glacio-isostatic processes resulted in the intermediate zone in block movements (uplift and subsidence) that affected the whole Cenozoic succession, creating mainly vertical discontinuity zones. Glacio-isostasy also induced vertical tectonic movements within the older deposits, reaching down to the crystalline basement. A tectonic graben thus developed. It is bounded by flexures accompanied on both sides by positive structures that may indicate transpressional movements with a strike-slip stress component.Item Large-scale land-suitability mapping in the GIS environment for the construction site of the University Olympic Village in Izmir (Turkey)(Bogucki Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 2009) Kincal, Cem; Koca, M. Yalçin; van Loon, A.J. (Tom)Participants of the 23rd University Olympic Games held in Izmir (Turkey) were hosted in a Universiade Olympic Village that had to be newly constructed. A risk analysis has been performed to assess potential engineering problems at the envisaged construction site. The risk analysis was largely based on a new, large-scale land-suitability map that was prepared in the GIS environment with much detail for this type of construction work. Information was collected from several maps, in combination with mapping in the field, drilling and seismic data. Geological, geotechnical, geophysical and morphological data were then superimposed on these analyses. This sequence of overlay analyses was performed with the help of GIS software (MapInfo Professional 7.5); this resulted in five hazard maps. Risk points (1-11) were then attributed to the different zones in the five digital hazard maps. A land-suitability map indicating the suitability for envisaged constructional activities was subsequently obtained in the form of an overlay of the five hazard maps, thus allowing to calculate a total risk for each zone on this map. The land-suitability map that was thus obtained, has been prepared for a 1:1,000 scale development plan; such a large scale is uncommon in this context.Item Easily-accessible digital palaeontological databases – a new perspective for the storage of palaeontological information(Bogucki Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 2009) Wolniewicz, PawełTechniques that allow to render diverse types of palaeontological data as publicly available internet resources are described. In order to develop an easily accessible digital palaeontological database, three steps should be followed: (1) digitization of the studied specimens, (2) acquisition of morphometric data, and (3) contribution of the data to open and searchable geoinformatic (palaeontological) databases. Digital data should be submitted to internet databases that allow a user to fetch various types of information from dispersed sources (semantic web services).Item Predictive diagenetic clay-mineral distribution in siliciclastic rocks as a tool for identifying sequence boundaries in non-marine successions: the Coalspur Formation, west-central Alberta(Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM, 2009) Khidir, Ahmed; Catuneanu, OctavianThe study of upper Cretaceous – lower Tertiary fluvial deposits of the Coalspur Formation in the Foothills region of west-central Alberta reveals that the distribution of early authigenic kaolinite has a well-defined relation to the sequence stratigraphic framework. In this context, it has been observed that the kaolin mineral content increases in sandstones lying below subaerial unconformities, which mark the most significant stratigraphic hiatuses and hence the sequence boundaries in fully fluvial successions. The increased abundance of authigenic kaolinite immediately below sequence boundaries may have been caused by the infiltration of meteoric water during times of subaerial erosion, resulting in the dissolution of unstable minerals (e.g., micas and feldspar) and the formation of kaolinite and secondary porosity. It is therefore suggested that the change in clay mineral assemblages in the stratigraphic section depends in part on the position of the analyzed sandstone samples relative to the sequence boundaries. In a larger context, the method of using authigenic clays to delineate depositional sequences in non-marine successions needs to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, as the diagnostic early diagenetic minerals underlying the sequence boundary may change as a function of palaeoclimate and also as a function of late diagenetic processes.Item Differences in the regional stratigraphy of NE Poland caused by vertical movements due to glacioisostasy(Bogucki Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 2009) Morawski, WojciechGeological mapping in combination with geophysical investigations and borehole analyses show differences of the Pleistocene between the Warmia and Mazury palaeogeographic provinces in NE Poland. The (more western) Warmia province has a crystalline basement that is covered by a folded sedimentary succession of 2-4 km thick. The (more eastern) Mazury province (eastern) has a basement that forms part of the rigid East European crystalline craton, which is covered by a sedimentary cover of only 1-1.5 km thick. Cyclic loading by the Pleistocene ice sheets in this area induced glacioisostatic processes of different intensities, resulting in changing palaeogeographic conditions. The changes were increased by intense neotectonic activity that was induced by the ice sheets in the intermediate zone between the two provinces, stretching along the western slope of the crystalline craton. Significant part of intermediate zone forms a belt of crevasse-infill landforms deposited between the Warmia and Mazury lobes of the last glaciation. Studied deposits reveal a cyclic reactivation of the interlobe zone during the successive Pleistocene glaciations. Considerable variations of the relief of the top-Neogene, vertical discontinuities cutting the Pleistocene and Neogene, stratigraphic gaps within the Pleistocene succession, and thick glaciolacustrine successions result from the vertical neotectonic movements in the intermediate area between the two provinces.