Fast palaeogeographic changes of the Pieniny Klippen Basin from palaeomagnetic data of the Bajocian-Berriasian section in the Veliky Kamenets (Carpatians, West Ukraine)

A 40 m thick carbonate succession of the Bajocian to Berriasian age from the Veliky Kamenets quarry (Novoselica area, Pieniny Klippen Belt, Ukraine) resembles both the Czorsztyn and Niedzica successions of the Pieniny Klippen Belt, traditionally considered ridge slope-related deposits. 176 individually oriented cores have been collected for palaeomagnetic purpose from the bottom to the top of the sequence, with sampling density dependent on inferred sedimentation rates. Unblocking temperature spectra and results of the Lowrie test, as well as electron microscope analyses, point to a Ti-poor magnetite as a main magnetic carrier. Thermal demagnetization revealed two main components of the natural remanent magnetization (NRM). A low-blocking temperature component S of normal polarity is considered of post-tectonic, probably thermoviscous origin due to overheating by Neogene volcanics. A stable, high-blocking temperature NRM component P shows dual polarity distribution and is considered primary. Since two significant sedimentary gaps occur at 422 cm and 860 cm (the main hiatus - H) from the base, the latter comprising the Late Callovian - Early Oxfordian time span (6-8 Ma), the pattern of magnetic reversals presented in this study can not be considered complete. A palaeolatitude of 41° ±5° is calculated for the mid-Jurassic part below H, similar to that expected for the European Craton at the Kamenets locality. The mid-Oxfordian limestone, directly overlying H, has palaeolatitudes around 28° ±6°. This implies a relatively fast opening of the oceanic domain to the North of the Kamenets block. Palaeomagnetic declinations suggest 100° counterclockwise rotation of the whole section before the Neogene.