Abstract: Paleogene geodynamics of the Carpathian/Pannonian system

TARI, GABOR, MICHAL NEMCOK

A geodynamic framework is proposed for the numerous Paleogene basins of the Carpathians, including their foreland and hinterland regions, based largely on the Western Carpathian sector of this thrust-foldbelt. The recently recognized flexural origin of the Hungarian Paleogene basin in the hinterland area suggests a compressional Early Tertiary West Carpathian arc. While this arc probably developed above a B-subduction zone, during the Late Eocene with a corresponding trench (Magura), a forearc basin (Central Carpathian or Podhale) and a retroarc flexural basin (Hungarian Paleogene), from the Late Oligocene to the Early Miocene, it was characterized by A-subduction with a corresponding peripheral foredeep (Dukla and Silesian) and a retroarc flexural basin (Hungarian Paleogene). A Middle Oligocene (~30 Ma) distinct compressional event may correspond to the time when the distal, highly attenuated continental crust of the European passive margin started to subduct in the Magura trough. This could explain the sudden termination of deposition and subsequent uplift in the Lower Kiscellian (Lower Rupelian) Central Carpathian (Podhale) forearc basin.

The disintegration of the Early Tertiary compressional arc of the Carpathians occurred in the Early Miocene, due to the continental escape of the North Pannonian block from the Alpine realm. However, the present-day collage of intra-Carpathian Paleogene basin fragments can be reconstructed in a coherent geodynamic scenario, prior to the Middle Miocene extensional collapse of the Carpathian/Pannonian system.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90942©1997 AAPG International Conference and Exhibition, Vienna, Austria