The Pieniny Klipp en Belt – structure, evolution and position in the Carpathian tectonic framework
Vol.18,No.1(2011)
The current tectonic research in the western and eastern Slovakian parts of the Pieniny Klippen Belt (PKB) has revealed some important differences between these two segments. The western PKB segment is characterized, in addition to the presence of ubiquitous Oravic units, by a broad incorporation of frontal elements of the Central Carpathian Fatric cover nappe system (Manín, Klape, Drietoma nappes). These are overstepped by still synorogenic, Gosau-type Senonian–Palaeogene basins. On the contrary, the northern and eastern PKB parts are dominated by the Oravic complexes representing an independent, originally intra-Penninic palaeogeographic element. Though strongly affected by Miocene along-strike wrench movements, several PKB sectors still preserve original fold-andthrust structures that developed sequentially in a piggy-back manner during the Late Cretaceous to Early Eocene times. Timing of these thrust events is facilitated by the presence of syntectonic sediments in the footwalls of thrust sheets, as well as by overstep complexes sealing older structures. The syntectonic sediments typically include olistostromes and huge olistolites derived from the overriding nappe fronts. In such a way, three principal Oravic units have been recently defined in the eastern Slovakian PKB – the Šariš, Subpieniny and Pieniny nappes.
Pieniny Klippen Belt; Mesozoic; Palaeogene; structural evolution