THE LATE OLIGOCENE OF BELARUS

Abstract

The upper Oligocene continental deposits are widespread in the southern Belarus. They are represented by the liman-deltaic sand and clay beds of the Starodubka Formation associated with monomineral lacustrine quartz sands, alluvial sediments of the Krupeiki Formation, and coeval brown coal deposits in karst depressions, which are accumulated after the Kharkov sea regression. Mineralogical and geochemical study of these deposits in the stratotype areas elucidated their genesis and provided grounds for the lithostratigraphic subdivision of their upper Oligocene interval. Eight spore-pollen assemblages of this interval were unraveled from seven section and supplemented with paleocarpological data obtained from 20 section representing eight groups of localities. The spore-pollen diagram from Well 3 near the village of Smolyarka is most complete and used to study for the first time the Oligocene-Miocene boundary floras correlative with floral assemblages known in Poland and Germany.