Late Cretaceous turbidite systems of southern Belgrade outskirts: Constraints on the Santonian convergence onset, evidence from the Sava Suture Zone (Guberevac-Babe, northern Šumadija, Serbia)
- Author(s)
- Darko Spahić, Dragan Simić, Miljan Barjaktarovic, Lidja Kureščević
- Abstract
As ancient depositional systems associated with active continental margins, turbidites may provide crucial information on orogenic evolution. This paper offers new stratigraphic and structural data on one of the late Alpine turbidite systems of the Late Cretaceous age (Guberevac-Babe-Ropočevo area; Serbia). The two opposite yet juxtaposed tectonic systems were initially deposited within the Sava Suture Zone and East Vardar Zone, whereby the former experienced Upper Cretaceous contractional- and extensional-type deformations. The new biostratigraphic dating constrains the age of mapped compressional structures, which indicates their Santonian age. This deformed segment of the newly dated Santonian clastic-carbonate turbidite sequence near the Guberevac site exposes new important compressional structures. The folds, reverse faults, and tectonic stylolites are allocated several kilometers from the primary deformation (Bela Reka thrust fault), positioned within the crustal footwall of the overriding East Vardar Zone. The complexity of the geological processes in the Guberevac-Babe-Ropočevo area is further revealed by the previously mapped layering of Upper Cretaceous strata, exposed within the wider investigated area. Our combined field study provides a new statistical analysis of structural elements such as faults, folds, and bedding planes, adding to the depth of the understanding of the Sava Suture Zone. The observed contractional structures, mesoscopic folds, thrust faults, two-generation cleavage planes, as well as the produced statistical structures, are mostly imprinted into the out-of-deformation front or within the mixed clastic-carbonate turbidites of the Sava Suture Zone (Guberevac-Babe area). The composite study shows that the investigated footwall segment, represented by the deformed Sava Suture Zone turbidites, underwent tectonic shortening during Santonian (convergence onset). After the main crustal thickening event ceased, the Guberevac-Babe-Ropočevo suture segment was reactivated several times (post-orogenic extension). The investigated segment of the Neotethyan Vardar paleosuture experienced a total of four deformation stages spanning Late Cretaceous to Miocene times. These include the Late Oligocene reactivation and emplacement of the Glavčina-Parlozi Late Oligocene subvolcanic body and the slightly younger Stenička bara Miocene igneous system.
- Organisation(s)
- Department of Geology
- External organisation(s)
- Geological Survey of Serbia (GSS), IMS Institute
- Journal
- Geologija
- Volume
- 67
- Pages
- 217-236
- No. of pages
- 20
- ISSN
- 1854-620X
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.5474/geologija.2024.010
- Publication date
- 12-2024
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 105124 Tectonics
- Keywords
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Geology, Geophysics, Palaeontology
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/95d2d16c-a196-4aab-aab3-8f715b765698