On the Cliff-Limestones (Klippenkalk) of the Northern Carpathian Range. By Dr. G. Stache and Dr. M. Neumayr.
[Proceed. Imp. Geol. Instit. Vienna, August 31, 1868.]
Evident and extensive foldings of strata have been observed in the Pieniny mountain-group, which is essentially composed of Jurassic limestones and Neocomian variegated marls and limestones, as also in the cliffs of Middle and Upper Jurassic limestones north-west of Lublau. The inferior Crinoidal limestones (Dogger) are steeply over-vaulted by the red limestone strata of Czorstyn. Between Szczawnica and the valley of Lipnik, even compact older Tertiary strata, which may be supposed to offer more constant resistance to destruction and decomposition (Nummulitic limestones and Eocene conglomerates with calcareo-dolomitie cement), show the outlines of cliffs rising from amidst red and grey Neocomian marls, Eocene nummulitic sandstones, and loose conglomerates. Several eruptions of a trachyte with sanidine, oligoclase, and amphibole amidst the cliff-region are met with near Szczawnica, proving that the action of the grand trachytic eruptions between Tokaj and Eperies (North Hungary) extended in the direction of the cliff-range and beneath the Carpathian sandstones running parallel to it. These facts lead to the following conclusions:— These cliffs are the remains of a system of complicatedly folded hard and resisting strata. This folding was caused by the powerful pressure of a great eruption, which, in its progress beneath the range of Carpathian sandstones, found no issue upwards, and affected the whole of the older deposits then accumulated between its chief line of upheaval and the compact granitic mass of the Tatra. A final upheaval of this mass may have coincided with this trachytic eruption at the beginning of the Neogene period. The softer materialsoverlying the more compact calcareous strata have been partly destroyed in the course of the catastrophe. The Carpathian sandstonesand older Tertiary sandstones and marl-shales which are conspicuously developed along the northern and southern limits of the cliff-region appear generally in but slight development close to the limit of the red, grey, and variegated inferior Cretaceous marls from among which the cliff-ranges rise. A general destruction and removal by water of the deposits above the Neocomians is not admissible, except on the supposition that this range was repeatedlyand for a long time, during the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods, the coast-limit of a continental region. Under the circumstancesjust described, a powerful trachytic eruption must necessarily have given rise to uncommonly frequent and diversified derangements and foldings of the whole system of strata. In some places broken or burst portions of the inferior more compact limestone beds have pierced through the softer deposits above them, while these last have been compressed between the foldings and the fissures of the more resistant calcareous materials. The red Crinoidal limestones contain Ammonites recte-lobatus, Terebratula curviconcha, and some other species from the Klaus-strata (Bathonian), together with Ammonites alternans, v. Buch, and
