Paleoenvironmental evaluation of the Tata Travertine Complex (Hungary), based on stable isotopic and petrographic studies

In the area of the town of Tata (Hungary) there are several Quaternary travertine outcrops, of which the Porhanyo Quarry is the best-exposed one. The travertine of the Porhanyo Quarry can be vertically divided into six units. Algal and other phytoclastic and phytohermal grainstone, boundstone and floatstone are the dominant microfacies. On the walls of the quarry carbonate vents and cones were detected; these forms are indicators of former spring activity at the bottom of a shallow lake. The lake, fed by thermal springs, was formed in a siliciclastic floodplain. The upwelling thermal water brought quartz and other detrital grains from the underlying Pannonian siliciclastic sediments to the surface, concentrating them in the vents. The three main phases of lacustrine evolution were interrupted first by a drying and flooding event, followed by a fluvial-eolian event and finally by eolian sedimentation. The oxygen isotope compositions of the vents differ from the values of vertical sections and slope samples...