ABSTRACT The first illustrations of geo-objects—different crystals of salt—from Poland were included by U. Aldrovandi in his Musaeum Metallicum (1648). The first publications containing paleontological sketches of fossil remains of animals and plants appeared in the early eighteenth century. G.A. Helwing, in his Lithographia Angerburgica (1717) and Lithographiae Angerburgicae Pars II (1720), included drawings of fossils of various ages from the Peri-Baltic area. G.A. Volkmann’s Silesia Subterranea (1720) was extensively illustrated by elaborate sketches of fossils including Carboniferous plants from the Lower Silesia region. In 1764, J.-É. Guettard published an important paper on the geology of Poland that contained detailed illustrations of fossils from various parts of the country. S. Staszic, in his two seminal books published in 1805 and 1815, provided detailed illustrations of animal remains, mainly bones of large, extinct mammals. This “pioneering era” of development of paleontological art came to an end with publications by two geologists that laid the foundations of modern paleontology in Poland: Polens Paläontologie by G.G. Pusch (1836) and Paleontologia Polska (1846) by L. Zejszner. In less than 150 years, paleontological art evolved from simple illustrations of “curious objects” from the subsurface to scientific drawings that marked the birth of modern paleontology.

Abstract The inversion of a sedimentary basin could be associated with compressional reactivation of basin-forming normal faults, upwards movement of the basement blocks and partial or complete erosion of its sedimentary infill. Basin inversion might be also related to whole-basin uplift that is not linked to the reactivation of basement faults, and results in the development of regional stratigraphic gaps and unconformities. Both types of basin inversion have been documented in SE Poland using seismic data. Regional NW–SE seismic profiles illustrate earliest Late Jurassic (earliest Oxfordian) and earliest Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian) regional unconformities related to regional basin-scale uplifts in the SE segment of the Polish Basin. Late Cretaceous (Turonian?–Maastrichtian) progressive uplift of the Mid-Polish Swell has been documented along the NE border zone of this regional anticlinal structure. The Upper Cretaceous inversion-related sedimentary succession is characterized by an overall progradational character directed from the SW towards the NE. Buried contourite drifts that were detected within the Upper Cretaceous succession using seismic data indicate the existence of contour currents encircling inversion-related intrabasinal morphological barriers. A new tectonic scenario of the Mesozoic evolution of SE Poland would have a significant impact on the modelling of tectonic subsidence and the history of petroleum systems.

Abstract The northern segments of the Carpathians, stretching between Limanowa (Poland) and Kosów (Ukraine), belonged to the most prolific hydrocarbon province in the world in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The earliest written accounts of natural occurrences of hydrocarbons in the Carpathians date back to the sixteenth century. In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Rzączyński, Kluk, Hacquest and Staszic provided accounts on methods of practical use related to oil. Staszic’s geological map shows numerous oil seeps and different rock types containing hydrocarbons. The development of the oil industry was triggered by Łukasiewicz’s discovery of an oil-distillation process and the construction of a kerosene lamp. Following this, the oil industry flourished in the Northern Carpathians. Oil production peaked at 2 Mt (million tons) of crude oil in 1910. In subsequent years, the level of oil production steadily decreased due to a turbulent economy. Exploration for oil, gas and ozokerite resulted in the development of modern micropalaeontology and geological mapping, with a prime example being the regional coverage of almost the entire Northern Carpathians provided by the Atlas Geologiczny Galicyi ( Geological Atlas of Galicia ), which consisted of 99 high-quality geological maps at a scale of 1:75 000. Geophysical surveying techniques were applied to subsurface mapping, and higher educational institutions were established in order to support exploration efforts.

ABSTRACT For the first time, modern seismic reflection data along with gravity and magnetic data were used to image the structure of a fold-and-thrust belt overlying the SW margin of the East European craton in SE Poland. These data demonstrate that the Variscan orogen extends eastward much farther than previously believed and terminates against the East European craton basement slope. The structural setting of this newly documented eastern extension of the Variscan fold-and-thrust belt in SE Poland is comparable to that of the Alleghanian orogen emplaced on the margin of the North American craton. Variscan deformation documented in SE Poland is more intense than anywhere else beneath the Permian–Mesozoic German-Polish Basin east of the Harz Mountains, probably because of buttressing by the relatively shallow basement of the East European craton. Our study focused on two regional tectonic units: (1) the Radom-Kraśnik block, a NW-SE–elongated structural high where early Paleozoic to Devonian strata subcrop beneath the Permian–Mesozoic cover, and (2) the Lublin Basin, a major Paleozoic sedimentary basin developed above the SW slope of the East European craton. The seismic data image the Radom-Kraśnik block as a thin-skinned fold-and-thrust belt with a 10–12-km-thick pile of Ediacaran (?) to Devonian sediments tectonically emplaced on the margin of the East European craton. These sediments are involved in a NNE-vergent stack of thrust units striking oblique to the East European craton margin slope. Individual thrusts branch off from a basal detachment that is located in the basal part of Ediacaran sediments unconformably overlying the East European craton crystalline basement. The frontal part of the Radom-Kraśnik fold-and-thrust belt is a triangle zone related to the jump of the basal detachment from the intra-Ediacaran position to the base of the Silurian shales. The base-Silurian detachment continues under the gently folded Lublin Basin and emerges along the Kock fault zone, which is a thin-skinned ramp placed over a basement step at depth. The Kock fault zone could be considered an analogue to the so-called mushwad structures described within the frontal part of the Appalachians.

Abstract The Permian–Cretaceous Polish Basin belonged to the system of epicontinental depositional basins of Western and central Europe and was filled with several kilometres of siliciclastics, carbonates, and also thick Zechstein (approximately Upper Permian) evaporites. Its axial part (the so-called Mid-Polish Trough) characterized by the thickest Permo-Mesozoic sedimentary cover, developed above the Teisseyre–Tornquist Zone, lithospheric-scale boundary separating the East European Craton and the Palaeozoic Platform. The Polish Basin was inverted in Late Cretaceous–Paleocene times. A synthesis of studies based on seismic reflection data allowed some general rules regarding salt tectonics of the Polish Basin to be formulated. Two general classes of structures genetically related to the presence of the Zechstein evaporites have been described: peripheral structures located within NE and SW flanks of the Polish Basin, outside its axial part and structures located within its axial part. The first class of structures includes grabens bounded by listric faults detached above salt or salt pillows that developed where Zechstein evaporites were of relatively smaller thickness and where sub-Zechstein fault tectonics played a relatively smaller role. The second class of structures includes more mature salt structures such as salt pillows and salt diapirs and is related to the more axial part of the basin, characterized by relatively thicker Zechstein evaporites and by more intense basement tectonics. First salt movements (salt pillowing) took place in the Early Triassic that in certain cases was followed by the Late Triassic salt diapirism and extrusion. In Jurassic–Early Cretaceous times, no significant growth of salt structures took place. Most of the salt diapirs have been finally shaped by the Late Cretaceous inversion tectonics. Some salt diapirs also underwent Cenozoic reactivation, associated with localized Oligocene or Miocene subsidence that in some cases was followed by younger (Pliocene–Quaternary) inversion and uplift.

Abstract Subsequent to the Variscan Orogeny, the lithosphere of Central Europe was subjected to a series of tectonic events in the Latest Palaeozoic and Mesozoic which were related to the ongoing breakup of Pangaea. The Early Mesozoic tectonic evolution of Central Europe was determined by its position between the stable Precambrian Baltic-East European Craton in the north and NW and two competing megarift systems in the NW, west and south. In the NW and west, the Arctic-North Atlantic rift systems heralded the later crustal separation of Laurasia while in the south, the opening of both the Tethyan oceans and the central Atlantic Ocean led to stress changes in the Central European lithosphère. During the late Mesozoic and early Cenozoic, ongoing rifting resulted in crustal separation in the North Atlantic, whereas the successive closure of the Tethyan oceanic basins and continental collision between Africa and Eurasia caused compression in Central Europe. This superposition of plate-boundary-induced stresses led to the development of a complex structural pattern with subsidence and subsequent inversion of numerous sub-basins and uplift of structural highs. These sub-basins are the sites where the preserved geological record can be used to reconstruct the Mesozoic tectonic history. The aim of this chapter is to provide a brief overview of the tectonic evolution of Central Europe in the period following the Variscan Orogeny, as well as to discuss the tectonic implications for the region resulting from the various plate movements involved. Detailed accounts of the palaeogeography and geology for the region are contained within the relevant Mesozoic chapters. Additionally, excellent palaeogeographic compilations are available for the Tethyan and peri-Tethyan domain (e.g. Decourt et al. 1992 , 2000 ; Golonka 2004 ; Stampfii and Borel 2004) , for the North Sea (e.g. Coward et al. 2003 ; Evans et al. 2003 ; Mosar et al 2002a, ft) and for the Norwegian Greenland Sea (e.g. Brekke 2000 ; Mosar et al. 2002a , ft; Torsvik et al. 2002 ). Our palaeotectonic maps are based on the works of Baldschuhn et al. (1996) , Coward et al. (2003) , Dadlez (1997 , 2003 ), Dadlez et al. (1998 , 2000 ); Decourt et al. (1992 , 2000) , Doré et al. (1999) , Evans et al. (2003) , Golonka (2004) , Kockel (1995) , Kockel et al. (1996) , Lokhorst (1998) , Mosar et al. (2002b) , Stampfii & Borel (2002) and Ziegler (1990 , 1999). These works are supplemented for some of the presented time slices with regional information detailed in the respective chapters.

Abstract The Permian to Cretaceous Mid-Polish Trough belonged to the system of epicontinental depositional basins of western and central Europe and was filled by several kilometers of siliciclastics and carbonates, including thick Zechstein (approximately Upper Permian) evaporites. The Mid-Polish Trough was inverted in Late Cretaceous–Palaeocene times, when its axial region was strongly uplifted and eroded. The presence of thick salt significantly influenced Mesozoic basin extension and inversion. Extensive seismic data is available which, in conjunction with deep research and exploration wells, enabled the construction of detailed tectono-stratigraphic models of the relationships between basement and cover tectonics as well as the interaction between salt structures and surrounding depositional systems. The apparent lack of major extensional deformation within the post-salt Mesozoic infill is responsible for several pulses of tectonic subsidence. These have been inferred from tectonic modelling studies and are attributed to the basin-scale mechanical decoupling between the sub-salt (sub-Zechstein) basement and the post-salt Mesozoic sedimentary infill. During such decoupled evolution, major faulting was primarily restricted to the basement, and only secondary faults and associated peripheral deformations developed within the post-salt sedimentary cover. In the central Mid-Polish Trough, because of strong basement extension, salt diapirs that partly extruded onto the basin floor formed. The surrounding Triassic and Jurassic depositional systems were strongly influenced by the combined effect of salt pillow/diapir rise and basement extension. Detailed seismostratigraphic analysis of the cover patterns indicates the timing of major extensional and compressional events and related formation of salt structures. Results of seismic data interpretation conform very well with published results of analog modeling.