Palaeoecology of a volcanically influenced Silurian sea floor in the Central Prague Basin, and its regional setting

 

Authors: Kříž J, Cherns L, Manda Š

Published in: Bulletin of Geosciences, volume 100, issue 4; pages: 785 - 808; Received 5 November 2025; Accepted in revised form 24 December 2025; Online 31 December 2025

Keywords: palaeoecology, small coral-stromatoporoid build-ups, volcano-sedimentary facies, Ludlow,

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Abstract

The palaeoecology of a volcanically influenced Silurian sea floor is analysed from the Smoking Quarry, Kozolupy, Czech Republic. Platy limestones with small coral-stromatoporoid reefs developed around the Svatý Jan volcanic centre in the Prague Basin, alternating with atrypid brachiopod-rich tuffitic shales. The reef building organisms are preserved in situ or very little disturbed, as are the brachiopod assemblages, indicating limited reworking. Extrinsic climatic factors and diagenesis are considered with regard to the sedimentary cyclicity. Limestone firmgrounds and hardgrounds indicate early shallow cementation and exposure of irregular, probably nodular beds enhanced by diagenetic segregation of carbonate. In the volcanic setting, limestones may represent periods of greater current activity, when volcaniclastic sediment was washed into deeper areas, while shales represent more quiescent periods. The Kozolupy section studied represents the uppermost Gorstian volcano-sedimentary facies of the Kopanina Formation going up into shallow water limestones in the early Ludfordian. The succession is compared in its regional context with other sections in the Amerika Anticline, illustrating the spatial development of biofacies along the axis of the Prague Basin and the effects of global eustatic oscillations.

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