Progradation of the paleo-Danube shelf margin across the Pannonian Basin during the Late Miocene and Early Pliocene

The basin of giant Lake Pannon in Central Europe was filled by forward accretion of sediment packages during the Late Miocene and Early Pliocene. Successive positions of the shelf-margin are represented by a series of clinoforms in seismic profiles. The height of the clinoforms (and thus the inferred paleo water depth) is 200–600 m in the successions; the width of the slope, measured from the shelf-break down to the toe of slope, varies between 5 and 15 km. Geographical position of successive shelf-margin slopes indicates that about 2/3 of the basin area was filled by sediment transport systems supplying sediments from the NW, from the Alps and Western Carpathians. The first shelf-margin slope was built by the paleo-Danube in the Kisalföld/Danube sub-basin about 10 Ma ago, and during the subsequent 6 Ma it prograded ca. 400 km to the SE across the Pannonian Basin, with an average of 67 km/Ma slope advance. The most significant agent of this shelf growth was the sediment dispersal system of the paleo-Danube, hence we designate this northwestern shelf the paleo-Danube shelf. The northeastern part of Lake Pannon was filled by the paleo-Tisza system, supplying sediments from the Northeastern and Eastern Carpathians. Additional local systems carried sediments from E to W along the eastern margin and S to N along the southern margin of the Pannonian Basin, respectively. The deep-water environment disappeared from the Pannonian Basin and the endemic, brackish biota of Lake Pannon went extinct probably 4 Ma ago, when the paleo-Danube shelf margin and a (yet unidentified) shelf margin prograding in the opposite direction met in the southeastern corner of the Pannonian Basin.

► The Late Miocene–Early Pliocene Lake Pannon was filled by lateral sediment accretion. ► Positions of the shelf-margin at different times were mapped in the Pannonian basin. ► Most sediments were supplied by the paleo-Danube. ► The oldest shelf-margin is 10, the youngest one 400 km away is 4 million years old.