Age and evolution of the Wetterstein Carbonate Platform in SW Serbia (Zlatibor Mountain)

Triassic shallow- and deep-water carbonates occur together with Triassic radiolarites widespread as olistoliths and slides in the Middle to early Late Jurassic mélange of the Dinaridic Ophiolite Belt in the Zlatibor Mountain. These slides occur tectonically on top of the Drina-Ivanjica Palaeozoic and the late Middle to early Late Jurassic ophiolitic mélange respectively the ophiolites and not below as interpreted before. These slides were interpreted to derive from the Drina-Ivanjica Unit, where they should have formed the original sedimentary cover, disintegrated in the Late Jurassic. According to our investigations the slides of this carbonate clastic mélange differ in age, facies and palaeogeographic origin. The carbonate rocks are originated from a relatively broad shelf in the Triassic facing the Neotethys Ocean to the east, maybe also from the adjacent Drina-Ivanjica Unit and from further east. In contrast, the Triassic radiolarites and the ophiolitic rocks, which occur mostly below the carbonatic mélange, derive from the Neotethys Ocean basin floor. These mixtures of different rocks forming mélanges are part of the Dinaridic Ophiolite Belt.
   The key for the reconstruction of the Jurassic history of mélange formation is the knowledge of the palaeogeographic derivation of the different slides in the Triassic passive continental margin arrangement facing the Neotethys Ocean further to the east. Especially for the Late Triassic the facies zones arrangement (Hauptdolomit [Dolomia Principale]/Dachstein Carbonate Platform and equivalents to the hemipelagic Hallstatt Facies belt facing the Neotethys Ocean) is proven from the Austroalpine/Western Carpathian domain to the Albanides.
   A kilometre-sized block in the Zlatibor carbonate mélange provides a complete succession of the Wetterstein Carbonate Platform (WCP) evolution, dated by means of conodonts. The complete section of the WCP evolution starts in the Klisura Quarry with bedded cherty limestones on top of a bentonite layer, which forms a thrust on top of Late Anisian Bulog Limestones and can be followed along a forest road in westward directions and than along the road from Sirogojno to Rožanstvo. The lower part of the succession is preserved in the Klisura Quarry and the upper part of the succession including the drowning event is preserved in an old quarry and few other places along the main road in direction Rožanstvo. The age range of the Wetterstein Formation as part of Wetterstein Carbonate Platform remains until now enigmatic and is estimated as Ladinian to Late Carnian. The Wetterstein Formation should pass directly in the Norian/?Rhaetian Dachstein Limestone without interruption of e.g., siliciclastics, drowning-sequences or longer lasting gaps. According to our new data the platform starts to prograde in Early Carnian times over hemipelagic Late Ladinian cherty limestones with fine-grained allodapic limestones (Trnava Member of Grivska Formation). Shallow-water reef-slope and reefal limestones still evolved in the Early Carnian (Wetterstein Formation). The top of the platform is recrystallized by karstification and partly dolomitized. After a period of omission caused by uplift, new subsidence started in early Late Carnian. This is documented by a drowning/flooding sequence of same age. The evolution of the onset and the drowning of the Wetterstein Carbonate Platform prove a palaeogeographic derivation of this block in the mélange from the outer shelf area, but still in a shallow-water carbonate platform position; this palaeogeographic position is especially confirmed by the new pulse of subsidence in the Late Carnian after a long lasting phase of omission. The evolution of the Wetterstein Carbonate Platform in the Inner Dinarides corresponds perfectly to successions known from the southern parts of the Northern Calcareous Alps or the southern West Carpathians.