Commune: Chmielnik (pow. rzeszowski, woj. podkarpackie)
Framework element or context represented:
Littoral structures and their ubiquitous biota.
Primary geological/geomorphological interest:
Ancient rocky seashore and their fauna of Miocene age.
Comparative assessment justification:
Best developed, preserved, and exposed littoral structures of the Paratethys Ocean in Central Europe of Tertiary (Miocene) epoch.
Protection status and accessibility:
Only the small cave is protected as the nature monument, accessibility free.
Character of site: Natural landscape.
Area: 10 ha
Altitude: 250 m a.s.l.
Lithology: limestones
Discipline: Palaeobiology, Palaeoenvironment, Stratigraphy of Phanerozoic
Process Age: Neogene, *all periods
Bedrock Age: Neogene, *all periods
Description of primary interest:
Ancient rocky seashores, owing to their abundance and excellent state of preservation are the most impressive documents of palaeotopography and eco-taphonomy of rock-boring biota (echinoids, bivalves, polychaetes) along the Paratethys shoreline in Poland and beyond. Exposed on slopes of Lubania Stream, have been developed around the hills built of Late Jurassic (Late Oxfordian) massive biohermal limestones, along a distance of over 1 km during the Middle Miocene (Badenian) Paratethyan transgression onto southern slopes of the Holy Cross Mountains, Central Poland. Empty borings of echinoids, large bivalve Lithophaga, large polychaete Polydora hoplura, and clionid sponges swarm over abrasion structures of various kinds, the cliffs and platform including. Relic (exhumed?) Miocene cave, formed in the Jurassic limestones, represents one of the most interesting landform of the palaeoshore. Its age and origin is confirmed by borings of clionid sponges on the cave ceiling.
Literature:
JOHNSON M.E. 1988–Why are ancient rocky shores so uncommon? Journal of Geology 96 (4): 469-480. GŁAZEK J. & RADWAŃSKI A. 1970–The Tortonian cave near Chmielnik (Southern Poland) (English sum.). Speleologia 5, 1-2: 23-32. RADWAŃSKI A. 1965–Additional notes on Miocene littoral structures of Southern Poland. Bull. de l'Acad. Pol. des Sci., Série des Sci. Géol. et Géogr. 13 (2): 167-173. RADWAŃSKI A. 1967–Problems of Miocene littoral structures on the southern slopes of the Holy Cross Mts., Central Poland. Rocznik Pol. Tow. Geol. 37 (2): 169-175. RADWAŃSKI A. 1969–Lower Tortonian transgression onto the southern slopes of the Holy Cross Mts. Acta Geol. Pol. 19 (1): 1-164. RADWAŃSKI A. 1970–Dependence of rock-borers and burrowers on the environment condition within the Tortonian littoral zone of Southern Poland. In: T.P. Crimes & J.C. Harper, Trace Fossils (Geological Journal Special Issues 3): 371-390. Liverpool. RADWAŃSKI A. 1977–Zapadlisko Przedkarpackie (Fore-Carpathian Depression). In: H. MAKOWSKI (Ed.), Geologia historyczna (Historical Geology): 741-753. Wydawnictwa Geologiczne. Warszawa.