Commune: Zielonki (pow. krakowski, woj. małopolskie)
Framework element or context represented:
Upper Cretaceous (Turonian) stratigraphy of Cracow Upland.
Primary geological/geomorphological interest:
A sequence of fossil-bearing Turonian deposits.
Comparative assessment justification:
Most representative outcrops of shallow marine Turonian deposits - an unique facies typical of the Krakow area. A few outcrops in abandoned quarries between Krakow and Częstochowa, less representative outside protection.
Protection status and accessibility:
Nature monuments established in 1970 and qualified now as documentary sites.
Character of site: Two abandoned quarries.
Area: 1.5 ha
Altitude: 253 m a.s.l.
Lithology: conglomerates, breccias, limestones, loesses
Discipline: Palaeobiology, Palaeoenvironment, Stratigraphy of Quaternary, Stratigraphy of Phanerozoic
Process Age: Pleistocene, *all periods
Bedrock Age: Cretaceous, Jurassic, *all periods
Description of primary interest:
In the Cracow Upland transgressive deposits of Turonian age usually very thin developed as sandy limestones, limestones with quartz pebbles and fossiliferous limestones crop out in few places. Two small abandoned quarries are situated on the left bank of the Prądnik river valley close to each other. Upper Jurassic (Oxfordian) massive limestones and a sequence of Turonian calcareous deposit occur in the southern outcrop (70 m long, 7 m high). Lower Turonian sandy limestones with brachiopods and bivalves rest on the abrasion surface. Another such a surface is developed at the top of these limestones. It is covered with conglomerates, nodular limestones and platy limestones abounding in echinoids (Lower/Upper Turonian). Similar succession crops out in the second abandoned quarry. Two layers of Turonian limestones have been distinguished. The lower one contains numerous quartz pebbles, and the upper - remnants of Echinoides and Inoceramus. Plantonic foraminifers (Globotruncana) were recognised in thin section of Turonian limestones. The fault passes parallel to the wall of this exposure. In the northern part of the site mollusc-bearing loess of Upper Pleistocene (Vistulian) crop out. It fills the dry valley shaped during the last glaciation.
Literature:
ALEXANDROWICZ S.W. 1954–Turonian of the southern part of the Cracow Upland. Acta Geol. Pol. 4: 361-390. ALEXANDROWICZ S.W. 1956–Globotruncana assemblages in the Cracow region (English sum.). Acta Geol. Pol. 6: 23-26, 41-63. ALEXANDROWICZ S.W. 1995–Malacofauna of the Vistulian Loess in the Cracow Region (S Poland). Ann. UMCS, B-50: 1-28. ALEXANDROWICZ Z., DRZAŁ M., KOZŁOWSKI S. 1975–A cataloque of inanimate nature reserves and monuments in Poland (English sum.). Studia Naturae B, 26, 298 pp. BUKOWY S. 1956–Geology of the area between Cracow and Korzkwia (English sum.). Biul. Inst. Geol., 108, Mater. do geologii obszaru śląsko-krakowskiego 3: 17-82.