International Geological Journal - Official Journal of the Carpathian-Balkan Geological Association

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Paleogeographic significance of Upper Triassic basinal succession of the Tamar Valley, northern Julian Alps (Slovenia)

Published: Aug 2015

Pages: 269 - 283

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/geoca-2015-0025

Authors: LUKA GALE, BOGOMIR CELARC, MARCELLO CAGGIATI, TEA KOLAR-JURKOVŠEK, BOGDAN JURKOVŠEK, PIERO GIANOLLA

Abstract: The Julian Alps (western Slovenia) structurally belong to the eastern Southern Alps. The Upper Triassic succession mostly consists of shallow water platform carbonates of the Dolomia Principale-Dachstein Limestone sys- tem and a deep water succession of the Slovenian Basin outcropping in the southern foothills of the Julian Alps. In addition to the Slovenian Basin, a few other intraplatform basins were present, but they remain poorly researched and virtually ignored in the existing paleogeographic reconstructions of the eastern Southern Alps. Herein, we describe a deepening-upward succession from the Tamar Valley (north-western Slovenia), belonging to the Upper Triassic Tarvisio Basin. The lower, Julian-Tuvalian part of the section comprises peritidal to shallow subtidal carbonates (Conzen Dolo- mite and Portella Dolomite), and an intermediate carbonate-siliciclastic unit, reflecting increased terrigenous input and storm-influenced deposition (Julian-lowermost Tuvalian shallow-water marlstone and marly limestone of the Tor For- mation). Above the drowning unconformity at the top of the Portella Dolomite, Tuvalian well-bedded dolomite with claystone intercalations follows (Carnitza Formation). The latter gradually passes into the uppermost Tuvalian—lower- most Rhaetian bedded dolomite with chert and slump breccias, deposited on a slope and/or at the toe-of-slope (Bača Dolomite). Finally, basinal thin-bedded bituminous limestone and marlstone of Rhaetian age follow (Frauenkogel For- mation). The upper part of the Frauenkogel Formation contains meter-scale platform-derived limestone blocks, which are signs of platform progradation. The Tarvisio Basin may have extended as far as the present Santo Stefano di Cadore area, representing a notable paleogeographic unit at the western Neotethys margin.

Keywords: Southern Alps, Late Triassic, paleogeography, Tarvisio Basin, carbonate platform

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