Go to main content

University of Silesia in Katowice

  • Polski
  • English
Institute of Earth Sciences
Logo European City of Science 2024

Tectonic activity of the Carpathians recorded in the Demänová Cave

08.11.2021 - 11:48 update 08.11.2021 - 12:01
Editors: lukaszmalarzewski

Although seismic activity is documented in the Inner Carpathians, the record of paleoseismic events is very sparse due to both erosion and the long period between earthquakes that can leave traces on the ground surface. Dr. Jacek Szczygieł and with team have documented such traces in the Demänovská Cave in the Low Tatra Mts. Thanks to uranium-series dating of the damaged speleothems, five events of the cave cutting fault reactivation during the last 0.5 million years have been determined. According to the modeling, the most likely source of the earthquakes was the Sub-Tatric fault. The research, conducted with geologists from ING UJ and Slovakia, was published in Tectonophysics.

Szczygieł, J., Gradziński, M., Bella, P., Hercman, H., Littva, J., Mendecki, M.J., Sala, P., Wróblewski, W., 2021. Quaternary faulting in the Western Carpathians: insights into paleoseismology from cave deformations and damaged speleothems (Demänová Cave System, Low Tatra Mts). Tectonophysics 820, 229111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tecto.2021.229111

dislocated speleothem column
dislocated speleothem column
return to top