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Tectonic processes: Súľov Cliffs
The Súľov Cliffs is an area in the NW Slovakia featuring rocky towers, steep cliffs and cones – all morphological forms offering a rather bizarre look. They are built of coarse conglomerate that formed along a rocky coastline of the Paleogene sea which flodded the Central West Carpathians. Then-coastline was mainly composed of Mesozoic carbonates forming steep slopes created by tectonic activity, i. e. an abrupt uplift of the coastline accompanied by an accelerated subsidence of the sea floor. The coastal carbonate cliffs desintegrated, their parts felling off and being rounded by wave motion and coastal currents. Later on, they turned conglomerates in a process called cementation. The Súľov conglomerate laterally and vertically give way to sandstone, organodetritic and organic limestone (e. g. Nummulitic limestone). In fact, it is an intraformational conglomerate laying inside a sedimentary sequence with underlaying claystone and marlstone. After the sea regressed, the Paleogene deposites were selectively eroded, thus exposing the cemented conglomerate, relatively erosion-resistant. It in turn was uplifted and substantially fractured by the resulting tectonic strain (view: Origin of Súľovské Skaly). Subsequently, individual slabs or blocks sank, sliding on the plastic claystone and marlstome basement. The fractures, fissures a and crevices were getting wider and they were step by step transformed into narrow valleys with steep slopes with towers, windows and gates due to water erosion (view: Súľov Rocks). Despite the considerable thickness of the conglomearte layer (about 600 m), the top part of the Súľov Cliffs arch was almost entirely fractured and destructed by tectonic strains and subsequent erosion. It is where the formerly underlaying claystone and marlstone has been exposed in the central part of the area of interest. |
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