Ewolucja utworów mioceńskich zapadliska przedkarpackiego w rejonie Rzeszowa (obszar zdjęcia sejsmicznego 3D Sokołów-Smolarzyny)

The Miocene Carpathian foredeep basin in Poland (CFB) developed in front of the Outer Carpathian fold-and-thrust belt, at the junction of the East European craton and the Palaeozoic platform. 3D seismic data, cores and well logs from Sokołów area (vicinity of Rzeszów) were used in order to construct new depositional model of the Miocene succession of the Carpathian foredeep. The gas-bearing Miocene infill of the CFB is characterized by a shallowing-upward trend of sedimentation and consists of hemipelagic, turbiditic and deltaic and nearshore-to-estuarine facies associations. Lowermost part of the Miocene infill seems to has been deposited from the North. Such direction of sediment supply was related to influence of existing relief of the pre-Miocene basement, where very deep (up to 1,5 km) erosional valleys cut into the pre-Miocene (Precambrian) basement due to inversion and uplift of the SE segment of theMid-Polish Trough are located. Upper part of theMiocene infill reflects sediment progradation from the South, from the Carpathian area into the foredeep basin. In the Rzeszów area existence of the so-called anhydrite-less island, i.e. relatively large area devoid of the Badenian evaporitic cover caused by the post-Badenian uplift and widespread erosion of evaporites,has been postulated for many years. Interpretation of 3D seismic data showed that such model should be abandoned. In the studied part of the CFB, Late Badenian evaporitic sedimentation was restricted to the axial parts of deep paleovalleys. Evaporites deposited in these valleys have been rarely encountered by exploration wells as such wells were almost exclusively located above basement highs separating erosional paleovalleys, hence giving incorrect assumption regarding regional lack of evaporitic cover. It is possible that in axial parts of these valleys important gas accumulations might exist, charged from the South and sealed by the Badenian evaporites.