Commune: Lubenia (pow. rzeszowski, woj. podkarpackie)
Framework element or context represented:
Biota and stratigraphy of flysh in context of historical investigations.
Primary geological/geomorphological interest:
Standard and historical site of the Babica Clay in the Outer Carpathians.
Comparative assessment justification:
Typical profile – site of historic exploitation by B. Kropaczek which in his unpublished Ph. D. dissertation was described more than 80 species of snails and bivalves.
Protection status and accessibility:
Proposed for protection as documentary site.
Character of site: Natural outcrops.
Area: c. 0.1 ha
Altitude: 250 m a.s.l.
Lithology: other igneous rocks, other metamorphic rocks, sandstones, conglomerates, breccias, shales, silstones, claystones
Discipline: Palaeobiology, Palaeoenvironment, Stratigraphy of Phanerozoic, History of geology
Process Age: *all periods
Bedrock Age: Paleogene, *all periods
Description of primary interest:
The site localized in left bank of a small stream is composed of several small outcrops of the Babica Clay. The quality of these outcrops permanently changes. They are positioned within the Paleocene part of the Inoceramian Beds (Ropianka Fm) with the general bearings 110/30/S. It is a site described and explored paleontologically at the beginning of the 20th century. According to current criteria, the term Babica Clay depicts lithosomes of the strata formed from dense, clayey, or muddy-sandy cohesive flows (clayey gravel conglomerates), containing exotics and olistholites. They occur as lenses with a thickness of up to several tens of meters within the Wola Korzeniecka Mbr of the Ropianka Fm and the Paleocene part of the Variegated Shale Fm of the Skole Unit (Outer Carpathians). The Babica clays from Kosina have the character of a clay-silt-sandy sediment with relatively scarce and small exotics. The clays are dark steel or black, structureless or with indistinct horizontal lamination, and originated from the material deposited on the shelf and in a deeper part of the basin, mainly along its NE margin. They contain disintegrated macrofauna and terrigenic material, prevalently well-rounded fragments of igneous and metamorphic rocks as well as of Devonian, Carboniferous and Titonian limestones and of Carboniferous coal. Fragments of sandstones and shales from the Skole basin can also be found.
Literature:
GONERA M., ALEXANDROWICZ Z. & URBAN J. 2000–Protected areas and objects. In: Alexandrowicz Z. & Poprawa D. (reds) Geodiversity coservation of the Polish Carpathians. (English sum.), Państw. Inst. Geol., Warszawa: 98-108. KOTLARCZYK J. 1978–Stratigraphy of the Ropianka Formation or of Inoceramian Beds in the Skole Unit of the Flysh Carpathians. (English sum). Prace Geol. PAN, 108, 1-75. KOTLARCZYK J. & ŚLIWOWA M. 1963–O knowledge on the productive Carboniferous formations in the substratum of the eastern part of the Polish Carpathians. (English sum.). Przegl. Geol., 11/6: 268-271. KRACH W. 1969–Mollusca of the Babica clays (Palaeocene)of the Middle Carpathians. P. II Pelecypoda. Studia Geol. Pol., 29: 7-29. KROPACZEK B. 1917–Bericht über geologische Ausflüge in der Gegend von Rzeszów. (Polish only). Spraw. Kom. Fizjogr. AU, 51: 100-105. KROPACZEK B. 1917–Kleine Beiträge zur Geologie der nördlichen Karpaten Mittelgalizienz. (Deutsh sum.). Spraw. Kom. Fizjogr. AU, 51: 106-146. MORGIEL J. 1959–The microfauna of the Babica clays. (English sum.). Biul. Państw. Inst. Geol., 131: 111-144. RAJCHEL J. 1990–Lithostratigraphy of the Upper Paleocene and Eocene deposits in the Scole Unit. (English sum.). Zeszyty Naukowe AGH, Geologia, 48: 1-112. RAJCHEL J. & MYSZKOWSKA J. 1998–Exotic clasts of organodetritic algal limestones from lithosoms of the Babica Clay, Skole Unit, Outer Flysch Carpathians, Poland. An. Soc. Geol. Polon., 68/2-3: 225-235. SZCZECHURA J. & POŻARYSKA K.1974–Foraminiferida from the Paleocene of Polish Carpathians (Babica clays). Paleont. Pol., 31: 1-142.