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Geological Magazine

Table of Contents - November 2012 - Volume 149, Issue 06  

Original Articles

U–Pb geochronology of zircons from fossiliferous sediments of the Hajnáčka I maar (Slovakia) – type locality of the MN 16a biostratigraphic subzone

VRATISLAV HURAIa1 c1, JEAN-LOUIS PAQUETTEa2a3a4, MONIKA HURAIOVÁa5 and MARTIN SABOLa6

a1 Geological Institute, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dúbravská cesta 9, P.O. Box 106, 84005 Bratislava, Slovakia

a2 Clermont Université, Université Blaise Pascal, Laboratoire Magmas et Volcans, BP 10448, F-63000 Clermont-Ferrand, France

a3 CNRS, UMR6524, LMV, F-63038 Clermont-Ferrand, France

a4 IRD, R 163, LMV, Clermont-Ferrand, France

a5 Department of Mineralogy and Petrology, Comenius University, Mlynská dolina, 84215 Bratislava, Slovakia

a6 Department of Geology and Palaeontology, Comenius University, Mlynská dolina, 84215 Bratislava, Slovakia

Abstract

Lacustrine sediments of the Hajnáčka I maar of southern Slovakia contain teeth and skeletal remains of a mammal fauna, including index Early Villanyian arvicoline rodents. U–Pb dating of magmatic zircons extracted from the redeposited fossiliferous maar sediments revealed a total of six volcanic events. The oldest age of 3.43 Ma was interpreted as that corresponding to the initial phreato-magmatic eruption that created the maar. Most zircons grouped around 3.06 ± 0.03 Ma, the age attributed to the catastrophic eruption that killed the mammal assemblage thriving within and around the maar studied. This age coincides with the 3.1 Ma boundary between the MN 16a and 16b subzones of the European Mammal Neogene chronostratigraphic scale estimated from the succession of Early Villanyian palaeontological localities according to the hypsometry of rodent teeth. Younger zircon ages overlapped those of the neighbouring basaltic lava flows, necks and dykes, thus recording superimposed effusions. The youngest 1.58 Ma old zircon defines the age limit for the final redeposition of the fossiliferous sediments in the maar drainage lake regime.

(Received June 09 2011)

(Accepted January 24 2012)

(Online publication March 28 2012)

Keywords:

  • zircon;
  • U–Pb dating;
  • rodent zones;
  • Villanyian;
  • Hajnáčka maar;
  • Pannonian basin

Correspondence:

c1 Author for correspondence: vratislav.hurai@savba.sk

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