The Orava segment of the Pieniny Klippen Belt: Lithology, structure and stratigraphy based on the organic-walled dinoflagellate cysts (Šariš Unit)

: The Pieniny Klippen Belt of the Western Carpathians is built up by Jurassic to Eocene Oravic units, with the Šariš, Subpieniny, and Pieniny Unit on the top. Major emphasis was placed on the dark fine-grained clastic deposits exposed in the vicinity of the villages of Beňova Lehota and Revišné (Orava sector of the Pieniny Klippen Belt). Through investigation of palynological material, the age of dark flysch strata was determined as predominantly uppermost Toarcian to Middle Aalenian and affiliated with the Szlachtowa and/or Skrzypny formations, belonging to the Šariš Unit. The results from the dinoflagellate cysts were supplemented by a structural investigation of the Šariš Unit. The complicated tectonic evolution of the Pieniny Klippen Belt is documented by intermixing of the soft shale deposits of Jurassic and Cretaceous age and by the presence of folds and cleavages. Based on the acquired data, the D 1 event records a compression with a NE–SW direction and is represented by folds with axial-plane cleavage. The younger D 2 phase is marked by the presence of south-vergent backthrusts, resulting from the ongoing compression and subsequent tilting of the originally north-vergent nappe stack of the Oravic units.