Orogenic structure of the Serbian Carpathians: a synthesis from the Danube River Gorge transect

Abstract

The Serbian Carpathians, a segment of the Carpatho–Balkanides orogen, preserve a tectonic record of Jurassic to Miocene evolution related to the opening and closure of the Ceahlău–Severin ocean. The Danube River
Gorge provides an exceptional field transect through this orogenic system, exposing the main tectonic units, their lithostratigraphic architecture, and the superposed deformation phases that define the present‐day structure of the
orogen. This contribution synthesizes field observations from ten key localities distributed along the Danube River Gorge between Golubac and Donji Milanovac. The transect directly documents the relationships among the Supragetic–Getic unit, the Ceahlău–Severin unit, and the Danubian unit, as well as their associated sedimentary successions, contractional structures, and post‐orogenic fault systems. The field profile includes deep‐water Jurassic–Lower Cretaceous sedimentary successions deposited along the passive continental margin of the Ceahlău–Severin ocean, tectonic contacts within the Dacia megaunit, east‐vergent folds and thrusts related to the emplacement of the Danubian nappes, and younger strike‐slip and extensional structures linked to Cenozoic strain partitioning. The transect demonstrates that the first‐order architecture of the Serbian Carpathians is primarily controlled by latest Cretaceous east‐vergent nappe emplacement, during which Dacia‐derived units were thrust over the Danubian domain. Earlier Jurassic–Early Cretaceous extension established the paleogeographic and structural template of the system, whereas late Early Cretaceous deformation records internal nappe stacking within the Dacia mega‐unit. Oligocene–Miocene strike‐slip and extensional deformation subsequently segmented the nappe stack without fundamentally modifying its overall geometry. The Danube River Gorge, therefore, provides a unique field‐based framework for understanding the tectonic evolution and orogenic architecture of the Serbian Carpathians.