Commune: Ożarów (pow. opatowski, woj. świętokrzyskie)
Framework element or context represented:
Middle Vistula section of Upper Cretaceous and Lowermost Palaeocene.
Primary geological/geomorphological interest:
Bryozoan limestones as specific facies of Turonian at marginal part of the Central European Basin.
Comparative assessment justification:
Bryozoan Janików Limestones represent facies of Turonian in Central Europe. They correspond with the upper member of the Turonian stratotype in province Touraine (France).
Protection status and accessibility:
Two quarries proposed as one documentary site. The occasionally working quarry is very well accessible.
Character of site: Working and abandoned quarries.
Area: 3 ha
Altitude: 180 m a.s.l.
Lithology: other siliceous rocks, limestones
Discipline: Palaeobiology, Palaeoenvironment, Stratigraphy of Phanerozoic
Process Age: *all periods
Bedrock Age: Cretaceous, *all periods
Description of primary interest:
The whole sequence of Upper Cretaceous and Lowermost Paleocene deposits, one of the most important in Europe, crops out along the middle course of the Vistula river between Annopol and Puławy. It was described by several authors. Turonian deposits are developed mainly as white opokas with cherts containing numerous fossils (inoceramids and ammonites). In the area between Ożarów and Zawichost an exceptional lithofacies of this stage occurs. These are thick-bedded organodetritical limestones, called the "Janików Limestones". They are composed predominantly of limestone grains and faunal remains. Broken skeletons of Bryozoa accompanied by skeletons of Echinodermata, as well as fragments of mollusc and brachiopod shells are main rock-forming components with an admixture of quartz and glauconite. Numerous black siliceous cherts occur between layers and inside them. Janików Limestones were previously interpreted as bryozoan reef but according new interpretation they represent a wedge-shaped body of organodetritical material with bryozoans and echinoderms. Best outcrops are in the temporary working quarry and in an old abandoned quarry situated close to one another in the vicinity of Janików. A relatively rich assemblage of foraminiferas has been found here. It contains 22 species including some of stratigraphical importance; the latter suggesting the Middle/Late Turonian age.
Literature:
ALEXANDROWICZ S.W. 1978–Foraminifera from the Janików Limestones (The Turonian of Central Poland). Bull. Acad. Pol. Sci., Ser. Sci. Terre 26, 1: 5-14. ALEXANDROWICZ S.W., ALEXNADROWICZ Z. 2004–Janików Limestones-specific facies of turonian (Upper Cretaceous) in Poland (English sum.). Chrońmy Przyrodę Ojczystą 60/6: 55-69. BUTT A.A. 1966–Foraminifera of the type Turonian. Micropaleontology 12, 2: 168-181. ŁUNIEWSKI A. 1923–Sur la géologie des environs de Zawichost (French sum.). Sprawozdania Pol. Inst. Geol. 2: 49-72. POŻARYSKI W. 1948–Jura i kreda między Radomiem, Zawichostem i Kraśnikiem (in Polish). Biuletyn Państw. Inst. Geol. 46: 1-141. SUJKOWSKI Z. 1931–Etude pétrographique du crétacé de Pologne (French sum.) Sprawozdania Pol. Inst. Geol. 6, 3: 485-628. WALASZCZYK J. 1992–Turonian though Santonian deposits of the Central Polish Upland; their facies development, inoceramids paleontology and stratigraphy. Acta Geol. Pol. 42, 1-2: 1-122. WALASZCZYK J., CIEŚLIŃSKI S., SYLWESTRZAK H. 1999–Selected geosites of Cretaceous deposits in Central and Eastern Poland. Pol. Geol. Inst. Special Papers 2: 71-76.