Multi-staged development of landslide slope after extreme hydro-meteorological event in 1997 (Beskid Wyspowy Mts, Polish Flysch Carpathians)

<div> <p>The study is focused on a multi-staged development of slopes affected by landslides in Beskid Wyspowy Mountains, Polish Flysch Carpathians. The role of extreme 1997 hydro-meteorological event as well as successive events in years 1998-2017 in landslide triggering was particularly taken into account.   </p> </div><div> <p>The flysch Carpathians are characterized by large percentage of an area affected by landslides. Landslides occupy 30-70% of slopes in this area. Meanwhile, this region has high population density (approx. 130 people per km2), which combined with low inclination of slopes encourages people for settlement and agricultural land-use on slopes, including landslide slopes.  </p> </div><div> <p>Development of slopes in flysch Carpathians is currently progressing mainly during extreme hydro-meteorological events. One of the most significant events took place in 1997 and it was unique one in terms of both the rainfall total and its intensity. After this event approximately 20,000 landslides were created or reactivated in the Polish Carpathians.  </p> </div><div> <p>Six slope sections ranging from the foot to the top of the ridge were selected for the research. All these sections were transformed by landslides during the 1997 event. They are all located in the Beskid Wyspowy Mts., which is one of the regions most affected by landslides in Polish Flysch Carpathians in 1997.  </p> </div><div> <p>The degree of activation of landslide slopes in 1997 and thereafter was defined based on field research and the analysis of DTM and orthophotomaps. A number of parameters of the relief of activated landslides were analyzed in detail, including: their slope, network of drainage. Later these parameters were compared to the relief parameters in inactivated parts of landslides. </p> </div><div> <p>In one of the studied slope sections no landslides older than 1997 were detected. In other studied slope sections older landslides were present, covering up to 65% of the section’s area. The rejuvenation of landslides covered from 8 to 26% of the area of landslides existing before 1997. Main landslide activity was the formation of numerous secondary scarps, fissures and a fresh accumulation zones of colluvia. Most of landslides that occurred in 1997 occurred within the older landslide forms. As a result, the total area of the slopes affected by landslides increased by only 1.0-1.7% of the studied slopes’ area.  </p> </div><div> <p>The further development of the landslide slopes in the period 1997-2017 was investigated. Precipitation events occurring during that period, especially in 1998, 2001, 2010 2014, were analyzed in terms of their efficiency in transformation of the studied landslides. The changes in land use in activated parts of landslides were also analyzed. It was found that there was a significant increase in forest cover of 13-52% in activated parts of the landslides in 2017 compared to 1997. An increase in the diversity of the relief of landslide slopes and a greater mosaic of land use, especially a decrease in agricultural land for the benefit of the forest were found.</p> </div>

Slump/Slide facies and biostratigraphy at the transition of the Cieszyn and Hradiste formations in the Cieszyn (Tesin) Section (Outer Flysch Carpathians)

ABSTRACT: New sedimentological observations in the Lower Cretaceous of the Silesian Unit and integrated biostratigraphy based on calcareous nannofossils, dinoflagellate cysts, calpionellids and foraminifers have brought new insight to the stratigraphy of the Cieszyn section. The oldest exposed strata of themudstone facies of the Cieszyn Limestone Formation are of early Berriasian age, based on calcareous nannofossil evidence. This work proposes that the Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary reported by previous authors was based on reworked microfossils. The detritic facies of the Cieszyn Limestone Formation, typically dominated by detritic-limestone turbidites, appears to be completely missing. Instead, a thick body with combined slump and slide features, of Berriasian–Valanginian age, forms the transition with the overlying lower Valanginian strata of the Hradiste Formation. The slump/slide body represents a local facies, deposited on a fault scarp related to fault-controlled extension of the Proto-Silesian Basin floor.

PROBLEMATIC ASPECTS OF THE FORMATION OF THE UKRAINIAN SEGMENT OF THE CARPATHIANS

In the paper a model of the formation of the folded-covering-block structure of the Carpathians at a time interval that envelops Late-Hercynian and Alpine events is substantiated. Moreover, this concerns the Outer Carpathians, but the whole Carpathians arch was characterized without going into details, a critical estimate is expressed for application of such terms as terrains, accretion prism, suture, subduction and Transcarpathian fault. It is shown that formation of the Carpathians occurred through several stages under the influence of different-directed, manly horizontal, movements, as a result of which was destruction of early formed Hercynian continental crust, laying of geosynclinals troughs, formation and further transformation of the basement of the Flysch Carpathians, its collision with Eurasian continental edge, underling of the latter under flysh complex. After completion of these processes mainly vertical movements took place that lineally formed the structure of the Carpathians as folded-covering-block one. As a result of the last event (Pliocene-Pleistocene), a differential development of intensive fracturing occurred with the influx of hydrocarbons and filling traps formed up.

Newly Emerging Geosites in the Polish Western Outer Carpathians as an Asset for Geoeducation and Geotourism

This study focuses on Flysch Carpathian river valleys recently reshaped by the fluvial erosion. Geological structures of these mountains are rather monotonous. However, numerous floods that occurred in recent decades and the abrasion of banks of water reservoirs have made many parts of valleys particularly interesting not only for geologists but also for tourists and for local people as a pleasant place for recreation. New outcrops of flysch sediments appear in different spatial and social contexts. On the basis fieldwork observations in years 2009–2018, four case studies of the newly emerging geosites in the Polish Flysch Carpathians are presented. In one case, few people seem to notice the new geosite. In two other cases, local communities have taken initiatives to use the newly emerging geosites for education. The fourth case is the walking path at the foothill of a rocky hill with the reconstructed medieval castle at the top. The owner of the castle arranged this path as an additional commercial attraction for visitors of the castle. The author analyses also possibilities of the formal protection of the newly emerging geosites within the existing Polish nature protection system. Finally lessons that can be learnt from these activities for other Carpathian communities are presented.

THE IDEA OF RELOCATION OF DISPOSABLE RESOURCES IN WATER MANAGEMENT AREAS WITH REGARD TO GROUNDWATER-DEPENDENT ECOSYSTEMS – THE WISŁOKA CATCHMENT CASE STUDY

In 2013–2019, PGI-NRI carries out a project documenting groundwater disposable resources for conducting water-economic balances. Among the balance areas documented directly by the PGI-NRI is the Wisłoka catchment and part of the Wielopolka catchment covering the Flysch Carpathians. The geological and structural structure of the Wisłoka catchment brings about the diversification of hydrogeological conditions, and the largest amounts of groundwater are found in the Quaternary formations of river valleys. Disposable resources were located within them due to the thick (considering the Carpathian conditions) packages of well-permeable sediments. In a situation when part of disposable resources (calculated by the hydrological method) could not be used in a given drainage basin, due to exceeded permissible groundwater table reduction in protected areas, it was decided to transfer unused reserves to balance areas of midwives in lower sections of rivers in a manner that does not interfere with the protection of their minimum acceptable flows.