An Olistolith interpretation for the Paleocene Szydło-wiec sandstones in the Stratotype area (outer Carpathians, Poland)

The thick-bedded complex of the Szydłowiec sandstones belongs to the lithological succession of the Subsilesian sedimentary area in the Polish Outer Carpathians. These sandstones contain abundant carbonate biogenic fragments, redeposited from shallower parts of the basin. Their Paleocene age is documented by autochthonous assemblages of agglutinated foraminifera as well as by the microflora occurring within the limestone clasts. The Szydłowiec sandstones in its type locality (locus typicus) at Szydłowiec in the vicinity of Wadowice forms, together with the Gorzeń sandstones, an isolated block surrounded by deformed flysch of the Oligocene-Miocene Krosno Formation, and contains shale clasts of older deposits. According to our results this block represents an olistolith which slided into the Skole part of the Menilite-Krosno basin during the Late Oligocene/Early Miocene deformational phase linked to the development of the Carpathian accretionary prism.