Commune: Łaziska (pow. opolski, woj. lubelskie)
Framework element or context represented:
Middle Vistula section of the Upper Cretaceous.
Primary geological/geomorphological interest:
Opokas of topmost Campanian - Nostoceras hyatii Zone.
Comparative assessment justification:
The Piotrawin quarry section represents the upper part of the Upper Campanian rarely accessible in central Europe. Its equivalent strata are well exposed and recently studied in Tercis, SW France, and in northern Spain.
Protection status and accessibility:
Outcrop is proposed to protection as documentary site. It is very accessible.
Character of site: Abandoned quarry.
Area: 2 ha
Altitude: 130 - 140 m a.s.l.
Lithology: other siliceous rocks
Discipline: Palaeobiology, Palaeoenvironment, Stratigraphy of Phanerozoic
Process Age: *all periods
Bedrock Age: Cretaceous, *all periods
Description of primary interest:
The Piotrawin quarry exposes a 30 m thick series of relatively monotonous opokas with a very rich and well-preserved macrofauna. The exposed succession comprises the topmost Campanian strata of the Nostoceras hyatti Zone in the ammonite scheme, and the Inoceramus altus and Inoceramus inkermanensis Zones in the inoceramid zonation. The section is of extreme importance for palaeontological and stratigraphical studies of the topmost Campanian of the whole Euramerican biogeographical region. In central Europe it is one of a few points where this interval is exposed, and inevitably the most fossiliferous. It is also a section of monographic description of ammonites, belemnites and of the bivalve-gastropod molluscs.
Literature:
ABDEL-GAWAD G.I. 1986–Maastrichtian non-cephalopod molluscs (Scaphopoda, Gastropoda and Bivalvia) of the Middle Vistula Valley, Central Poland. Acta Geol. Polon., 36: 69-224. BŁASZKIEWICZ A. 1980–Campanian and Maastrichtian ammonites of the Middle Vistula River valley, Poland: a stratigraphic-paleontologic study. Prace Inst. Geol., 92: 3-63. BURNETT J.A., HANCOCK J.M., KENNEDY W.J., & LORD A.R. 1992–Macrofossil planctonic foraminiferal and nannofossil zonation at the Campanian/Maastrichtian boundary. Newsletters on Stratigraphy, 27: 157-172. KONGIEL R. 1962–On belemnites from Maastrichtian, Campanian and Santonian sediments in the Middle Vistula valley (Central Poland). Pr. Muz. Ziemi, 5: 1-148. WALASZCZYK I. 2004–Inoceramids and inoceramid biostratigraphy of the Upper Campanian to basal Maastrichtian of the Middle Vistula River section, central Poland. Acta Geol. Polon., 54: 95-168. 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.