Emendation of the Grivska formation in its type area (Dinaridic Ophiolite Belt, SW Serbia)

Age, microfacies and depositional realm of the Grivska Formation is controversially discussed due to the fact that detailed investigations are missing. Based on reinvestigations of the type locality of the Grivska Formation and in adjacent areas, the following results can be drawn: 1) The Grivska Formation is of Late Triassic (Early Carnian to Rhaetian) age according to conodont dating. 2) Sedimentological and microfacies studies evidenced that the Grivska Formation was deposited on the continental slope and transitional to the Neo-Tethys Ocean. Based on the results of these investigations in the type area and several reference sections in the Dinaridic Ophiolite Belt, the Grivska Formation is emended and clearly defined. In the Dinaridic Ophiolite Belt, the Grivska Formation occurs only as clasts and blocks in the ophiolitic melange. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. ON-176015

Lower triassic (Olenekian) microfauna from Jadar block (Gučevo mt., Nw serbia)

Systematic study of microfossil associations on the Krivi Potok section (Gučevo Mt. area, NW Serbia) has been carried out to document and to refine the Lower Triassic stratigraphic correlations within Alpine-Mediterranean domain. Field investigation and laboratory process have enabled the identification of lowermost Olenekian (lower Smithian) conodonts, ostracodes and pyrite framboids. Two conodont zones are established in this region, in ascending order they are: Pachycladina obliqua-Foliella gardenae Assemblage Zone and Neospathodus planus Zone. A new ostracode species Paracypris ? krivipotokensis FOREL n. sp. has been described, it co-occurs with conodont Neospathodus planus within the Zone of the same name. The pyrite framboids were formed within the ostracode carapaces after their death. The size distribution of pyrite framboids supports the former suggestion that large size (>6 μm in diameter) is not suitable for the reconstruction of seawater redox conditions

Upper Triassic‒Middle Jurassic resedimented toe-of-slope and hemipelagic basin deposits in the Dinaridic Ophiolite Belt, Zlatar Mountain, SW Serbia

In the Dinaridic Ophiolite Belt, small (m-scale) to large (km-scale) blocks of Middle to Upper Triassic, and Middle to Upper Jurassic, more or less silicified bedded limestone are widely present, both as parts of para-autochthonous successions and as redeposited blocks in ophiolitic mélanges. The studied, approximately 230-m-thick succession in the wider area of Zlatar Mountain, is one of the most important para-autochthonous sections in the Serbian part of the Dinaridic Ophiolite Belt. The succession is made up of an alternation of redeposited carbonate toe-of-slope deposits, sand to clay-sized siliciclastic rocks, hemipelagic mudstones and radiolarite–spongiolite basin facies. In the lower part of the sequence, the components of the siliciclastic beds were derived mostly from low- and medium-grade metamorphic rocks. Similar components, together with sand-sized fragments of ophiolitic rocks, were encountered in small amounts in some redeposited carbonate beds. The chronostratigraphic assignment of the succession is based mostly on foraminifers, but age-diagnostic radiolarians and other microfossil groups were also considered. In the lower part of the probably continuous succession, a Norian–Rhaetian assemblage was recognized; a Sinemurian–Pliensbachian assemblage was encountered up-section, whereas the upper part of the succession could be assigned to the Bajocian–Bathonian. Considering the paleogeographic reconstructions and the analogies of age-equivalent sections, the succession records the depositional history of the Bosnian Basin during the Late Triassic to Middle Jurassic period and may contribute to the understanding of the evolution of the Adriatic margin of the Neotethys Ocean in the transition interval from passive to active margin stages

New results of microfaunal and geochemical investigations in the Permian–Triassic boundary interval from the Jadar Block (NW Serbia)

Detail results of microfaunal, sedimentological and geochemical investigations are documented from a newly discovered section of the Permian–Triassic boundary (PTB) interval in the area of the town of Valjevo (northwestern Serbia). The presence of various and abundant microfossils (conodonts, foraminifers, and ostracodes) found in the Upper Permian “Bituminous limestone” Formation enabled a determination of the Changhsingian Hindeodus praeparvus conodont Zone. This paper is the first report of latest Permian strata from the region, as well as from all of Serbia, where the PTB interval sediments have been part of a complex/integrated study by means of biostratigraphy and geochemistry

Triassic metasediments in the internal Dinarides (Kopaonik area, southern Serbia) : stratigraphy, paleogeographic and tectonic significance

Strongly deformed and metamorphosed sediments in the Studenica Valley and Kopaonik area in southern Serbia expose the easternmost occurrences of Triassic sediments in the Dinarides. In these areas, Upper Paleozoic terrigenous sediments are overlain by Lower Triassic siliciclastics and limestones and by Anisian shallow-water carbonates. A pronounced facies change to hemipelagic and distal turbiditic, cherty metalimestones (Kopaonik Formation) testifies a Late Anisian drowning of the former shallow-water carbonate shelf. Sedimentation of the Kopaonik Formation was contemporaneous with shallow-water carbonate production on nearby carbonate platforms that were the source areas of diluted turbidity currents reaching the depositional area of this formation. The Kopaonik Formation was dated by conodont faunas as Late Anisian to Norian and possibly extends into the Early Jurassic. It is therefore considered an equivalent of the grey Hallstatt facies of the Eastern Alps, the Western Carpathians, and the Albanides—Hellenides. The coeval carbonate platforms were generally situated in more proximal areas of the Adriatic margin, whereas the distal margin was dominated by hemipelagic/pelagic and distal turbiditic sedimentation, facing the evolving Neotethys Ocean to the east. A similar arrangement of Triassic facies belts can be recognized all along the evolving Meliata-Maliac- Vardar branch of Neotethys, which is in line with a ‘one-ocean-hypothesis’ for the Dinarides: all the ophiolites presently located southwest of the Drina-Ivanjica and Kopaonik thrust sheets are derived from an area to the east, and the Drina-Ivanjica and Kopaonik units emerge in tectonic windows from below this ophiolite nappe. On the base of the Triassic facies distribution we see neither argument for an independent Dinaridic Ocean nor evidence for isolated terranes or blocks