Commune: Bircza (pow. przemyski, woj. podkarpackie)
Framework element or context represented:
Stratygraphy and palaeoenvironment of the Carpathian Flysh deposits.
Primary geological/geomorphological interest:
Kliwa sandstones of the Skole Unit Menilite Beds.
Comparative assessment justification:
Hypostratigraphic profile of Oligocene Kliva Sandstone in the Eastern Flysh Carpathians.
Protection status and accessibility:
Protected documentary site of inanimate nature (1995).
Character of site: Artificial outcrop.
Area: 0.05 ha
Altitude: 310 m a.s.l.
Lithology: sandstones, limestones, shales, sands
Discipline: Palaeoenvironment, Petrography, Stratigraphy of Phanerozoic
Process Age: *all periods
Bedrock Age: Paleogene, *all periods
Description of primary interest:
The site occurs north of the road in Malawa in a man-made, overgrown escarpment. Over a distance of about 50 m and reaching 5 m of height, there crop out the Kliwa Sandstone of the Menilite Beds. The layers rest monoclinally in the normal position with the general bearings 140/30/SW. The rocks developed as very thick-bedded Kliwa sandstones with layers from 0.5 to 2 m are medium-grained arenites without calcite, fragile, with characteristic granular disintegration. Their oblique or horizontal lamination is poorly visible, and the sandstones show erosional scours and troughs, filled with coarser sandy material. Close to the roof of most sandstone beds their horizontal lamination is stressed by several-millimetre thick, irregular laminae of sandy, brownish shales. The sandstones also contain shapeless fragments of brownish shales of the Menilite type with diameters up to 20 cm and of Carboniferous coal. In the western part of the outcrop there occurs a large block of the exotic, Štramberk limestone with the size 1.5x2 m. All the sandstone layers reveal tectonic joints perpendicular to bedding. Several small faults are also visible. The Kliwa sandstones are a result of sandy flows from the NE edge of the Skole Unit basin. They occur as sandy lithosomes with the thickness up to 100 m and the width up to several kilometres in a diversified stratigraphic position within the Menilite Beds. These lithosomes also enclose deposits of detrital and mudflows. They formed in the higher and medium parts of an accumulation submarine fan, prevalently in its channel zone. In the Polish part of the Skole Unit four such zones were distinguished.
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. JUCHA S. & KOTLARCZYK J. 1961–La série des couches à Menilite et de couches de Krosno dans le flysch des Karpates. (French sum.). Prace Geol., PAN, 4: 1-115. KOTLARCZYK J.1976–Contributions towards the explanation of the origin of cleavage sandstones of the Polish Carpathians. (Polish only). Spraw. z Pos. Kom. Nauk. PAN, Oddz. w Krakowie, 19/1: 185-187. KOTLARCZYK J. 1979–Occurrence of coal in the Carpathian flysh – some sedimentological observations. (English sum.). Rocz. Pol. Tow. Geol., 49/1-2:135-154. KOTLARCZYK J. & LEŚNIAK T. 1990–Lower part of the Menilite formation and related Futoma Diatomite Member in the Skole Unit of the Polish Carpathians. (Eglish sum.). Wyd. AGH: 1-74. KOTLARCZYK J. 1991–Modele basenów sedymentacyjnych jednostki skolskiej i zatoki rzeszowskiej. Paleontologia a Batymetria. Materiały XIV Konferencji Paleontologów w Karpatach Rzeszowskich: 11-21.