STACHE AND NEFMAYR CLIEF-LIMESTONES. 7 



On the Cliee-Limestones (Klippenkale:) of the Northeen Caepa- 

 THiAH- Eai^^ge. -By Dr. G. Stache and Dr. M. Nefmayr. 



[Proceed. Imp. Geol. Instit. Vienna, August 31, 1868.] 



Evident and extensive foldings of strata have been observed in the 

 Pieniny mountain-group, which is essentially composed of Jurassic 

 limestones and Neocomian variegated marls and limestones, as also 

 in the cliffs of Middle and Upper Jurassic limestones north-west of 

 Lublau. The inferior Crinoidal limestones (Dogger) are steeply over- 

 vaulted by the red limestone strata of Czorstyn. Between Szczawnica 

 and the valley of Lipnik, even compact older Tertiary strata, which 

 may be supposed to offer more constant resistance to destruction and 

 decomposition (Nummulitic limestones and Eocene conglomerates 

 with calcareo-dolomitie cement), show the outlines of cliffs rising 

 from amidst red and grey Neocomian marls, Eocene nummulitic 

 sandstones, and loose conglomerates. Several eruptions of a trachyte 

 with sanidine, oligoclase, and amphibole amidst the cliff-region are 

 met with near Szczawnica, proving that the action of the grand 

 trachytic eruptions between Tokaj and Eperies (JS'orth Hungary) ex- 

 tended in the direction of the cliff-range and beneath the Carpathian 

 sandstones running parallel to it. These facts lead to the following 

 conclusions : — These cliffs are the remains of a system of complicatedly 

 folded hard and resisting strata. This folding luas caused hy the 

 powerful pressure of a great eruption, which, in its progress beneath 

 the range of Carpathian sandstones, found no issue upwards, and 

 affected the luhole of the older deposits then accumulated hetiveen its 

 chief line of upheaval and the compact granitic mass of the Tatra. 

 A final upheaval of this mass may have coincided with this trachytic 

 eruption at the beginning of the Neogene period. The softer mate- 

 rials overlying the more compact calcareous strata have been partly 

 destroyed in the course of the catastrophe. The Carpathian sand- 

 stones and older Tertiary sandstones and marl-shales which are 

 conspicuously developed along the northern and southern limits of 

 the chff-region appear generally in but slight develoj)ment close 

 to the limit of the red, grey, and variegated inferior Cretaceous 

 marls from among which the cliff-ranges rise. A general destruc- 

 tion and removal by water of the deposits above the Neocomians is 

 not admissible, except on the supposition that this range was re- 

 peatedly and for a long time, during the Cretaceous and Tertiary 

 periods, the coast-limit of a continental region. Under the cir- 

 cumstances just described, a powerful trachytic eruption must 

 necessarily have given rise to uncommonly frequent and diver- 

 sified derangements and foldings of the whole system of strata. 

 In some places broken or burst portions of the inferior more com- 

 pact limestone beds have pierced through the softer deposits above 

 them, while these last have been compressed between the foldings 

 and the fissures of the more resistant calcareous materials. The 

 red Crinoidal limestones contain Ammonites recte - lohatus, Tere- 

 hratula curviconcJia, and some other species from the Klaus-strata 

 (Bathonian), together with Ammonites alternans, v. Buch, and 



