[Back]


Talks and Poster Presentations (with Proceedings-Entry):

A. Zámolyi, F. Horváth, G. Kovács, G. Timár, B. Székely:
"Geologic map of Mészáros revisited: Pioneering tectonic mapping of the Transdanubian Range in the early 1980s";
Poster: EGU 2009, Vienna; 2009-04-19 - 2009-04-24; in: "Geophysical Research Abstracts", 11 (2009), Paper ID EGU2009-11622-2, 1 pages.



English abstract:
Rocks, even in tectonically active areas are very solid compared to the changes within the scientific theories that
occured especially in Eastern Europe as the political landscape changed and the separation into socialist and
capitalist countries started to fade. While in Western Europe, Wegener´s mobilistic approach gained widespread
acceptance in the 1960-ies, in the countries of Eastern Europe (partly due to political reasons) fixistic ideas were
supported. Despite the fact that most important early concepts in Hungarian tectonics were born about a century
ago as a results of exploration of the Lake Balaton and its surroundings conducted by Lajos Lóczy, initiatives to
integrate various geodynamic observations were rare exceptions in the second half of the 20th century.
The high priority of economic geologic prospection in order to find raw materials resulted in an enormous amount
of observations. In the central Transdanubian Range (TR), hosting bauxite, coal and manganese deposits, extensive
surveying was carried out according to fixistic tectonic concepts. Although the recognition of faults was of vital
importance in mining, mapped faults were rarely integrated into a global geodynamic model.
A pioneering approach was presented by Mészáros (1983), who compiled a 1: 100 000 scale structural and
economic-geologic map of large parts of TR. The map focuses on the Bakony hills that are of key importance for
the geodynamic understanding of the formation of PB. TR forms inselbergs with well preserved outcrops, which
is rare in PB, thus allowing for direct measurements of fault striations and fault plane orientations.
Prinz (1926) maintained the theory that the TR is a rigid block and named it Tisia block. An alternative to this
approach was the monograph of Uhlig (1907) proposing mobilistic concepts. Csontos et al (1991) reviewed
the evolution of neogene stress-fields in the Carpatho-Pannonian region observing microtectonic faults in TR.
The authors conclude that the faults mapped by Mészáros (1983) coincide fairly well with their microtectonic
measurements. TR is nowadays interpreted as the uppermost Cretaceous thrust sheet of the Alpine nappes based on
the interpretation of seismic surveys (Rumpler & Horváth, 1988; Horváth, 1993) and microtectonic measurements
(Kiss & Fodor, 2007).
We integrated the map into a GIS environment in order to evaluate the spatial accuracy of tectonic features and
deformation style in the study area. Georeferencing was based upon control points applying rubber sheeting.
Geological formations were digitized as polygons with their respective attributes (colour- or numerically coded).
Three different categories of bounding elements are represented on the map: established, supposed and covered by
younger geologic formations. Mészáros put a major emphasis on tectonic features, using 21 different line-types
for representation. Digital terrain analysis methods using a 10 m DTM reveal a good correlation of the fault
pattern with geomorphologic features, especially in the category of confirmed strike-slip faults. The connection
of tectonic elements with the topography is a very anticipatory way of thinking for the early 1980s that became
widely accepted by the end of the century.


Electronic version of the publication:
http://publik.tuwien.ac.at/files/PubDat_175586.pdf


Created from the Publication Database of the Vienna University of Technology.