Morphotectonic analysis for improvement of neotectonic subdivision of the Liptovská kotlina Basin (Western Carpathians)

Abstract

The Liptovská kotlina Basin (LKB) belongs to the most neotectonically active intramountain basins of the Western Carpathians (Halouzka 1993). Its last neotectonic subdivision was carried out at the scale ~ 1:200,000 (Halouzka 1993), later included in the Neotectonic map of Slovakia (Maglay et al. 1999). This paper presents a more detailed subdivision and delineation of borders of neotectonic blocks of the LKB on the basis of the set of morphotectonic analyses. The Váh River terraces, thickness of Quaternary deposits, faults and morpholineaments and SL index were employed to more precisely delimitate the neotectonic blocks. A long profile analysis of the river terraces bedrock (inferred from 127 drillings and outcrops) and bedrock surface of the recent floodplain (65 drillings) was carried out to detect neotectonic faults within the fluvial systems. Based on the relative height of the surfaces under a terrace and previous fluvial sediment investigations (e.g. Droppa 1964 and Gross 1979), eleven terrace levels were confirmed. 1,958 boreholes and 1,085 geophysical points were used to identify the spatial distribution of the thickness of the Quaternary fill of the basin. Tectonic faults and morpholineaments were used as borders of particular neotectonic blocks. Suggesting the alternation of neotectonic borders, the LKB was subdivided into 60 neotectonic blocks comparing to 24 blocks of former subdivisions (Maglay et al. 1999). Moreover, a new Quaternary depression filled with glacifluvial deposits was identified (min 50 m of thickness) in close vicinity to Pribylina, which could be added to the depressions list (Maglay et al. 2011a).