The sedimentary succession in central Poland records significant changes in facies at the turn of the Planula and Platynota zones in the Upper Jurassic, expressed by the drowning of the ramp-type platform and development of an extensive isochronous marl horizon. The topmost level of the marl horizon is a regional hardground, which is interpreted as the third-order sequence boundary Kim 1. In some areas, the hardground was eroded and is only preserved as bored and encrusted clasts. The composition of the borings may indicate that colonization and recolonization of the clasts took place in an extremely shallow water environment. The overall low level diversity of clast-encrusting organisms and their occurrence on both sides of clasts indicates frequent overturning and high current activity. However, other extrinsic factors, such as salinity fluctuations, may have been involved. The final redeposition and burial of the clasts were related to subsidence through widespread reactivation of Paleozoic faults. Comparison with Middle Oxfordian–Lower Kimmeridgian sequences of central and southern Poland indicates that the carbonate ramp morphology and paleoenvironmental conditions were periodically subjected to significant modification during phases of extensional tectonics, with the development of fault-controlled intra-platform ridges and basins. These features may have been the NE continuation of parallel swells and basins developed in the southern part of the carbonate platform adjacent to the Tethys.

In recent years, numerous wells have been completed in the area of the Złoczew Graben. Drill cores and data collected from wells have led to the recognition of an Upper Oxfordian–Lowermost Kimmeridgian sequence and to the construction of a 3D model of the graben with distribution of facies. Six facies types were distinguished, composed of numerous microfacies representing outer-, middle-, and inner-ramp depositional systems. The boundary of the Planula/Platynota zones is indicated by the transition from mid-inner carbonate ramp facies to mixed, carbonate–siliciclastic outer-ramp facies, as well as by appearance of debrites and calciturbidites. The distribution of gravity-flow deposits reflects the pattern of fault zones of the Złoczew Graben and their Late Jurassic activity. Comparison of Oxfordian–Lowermost Kimmeridgian facies types from central and southern Poland enabled the reconstruction of the general facies architecture in the Polish part of the northern peri-Tethyan shelf belonging to the Małopolska Block. The distribution of Upper Oxfordian–Lowermost Kimmeridgian facies follows the block structure of the basement and was controlled by reactivation of Paleozoic tectonic blocks in the Late Jurassic. The results of studies in the Polish basin correspond well to Upper Oxfordian–Lower Kimmeridgian sequences known from the ramp systems of western Europe where the basic change in deposition, from a carbonate ramp towards mixed, carbonate–siliciclastic sedimentation, was related to both North Atlantic and western European tectonics.

Isolated stromatactis-like cavities were found in a microbial-sponge buildup exposed in the Wielkanoc quarry (eastern part of the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland). The cavities are filled with several generations of carbonate cements and with internal sediments. The top surfaces of internal sediments are flat or wavy, whereas the roofs of cavities are arcuate. The origin of cavities from the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland is difficult to constrain. It seems that the stromatactis-like cavities from the Wielkanoc quarry resulted, at least partly, from remodeling of open spaces left after dissolution of corals in incompletely lithified sediment. Dissolution of corals disturbed the primary stress field within the carbonate buildup and generated the secondary stress characterized by the appearance of compressional forces in the walls of cavities and tensional forces in their roofs. Thus, the lack of support of sediments over roofs of cavities after dissolution of corals resulted in their instability and collapse triggered by vibrations caused by various factors. One of such triggers might have been the rejuvenation of the Kraków-Lubliniec Fault Zone in the Late Jurassic or the collapse of reticular framework within the buildup. The material falling down from the roofs was deposited at the bottoms of cavities as an internal sediment. Results of experimental studies demonstrate that the arcuate shapes of the roof surfaces of cavities are related to compressional stress in the walls and tensional stress in their roofs.

The sedimentary succession of the largest example of an Upper Oxfordian reef located in the southern part of the Polish sector of the northern Tethys shelf is described. Detailed sampling of exposures enabled characterization of the full succession of facies and microfacies diversity, documenting the reef evolution. The succession studied represents the maximum development of Upper Jurassic reefs in Poland corresponding to the upper Transversarium and the Bifurcatus zones, and followed by drowning of the carbonate platform in the lower Bimmamatum Zone. The reef succession comprises three types of facies, in which eight important microfacies types were distingushed, reflecting several stages of reef development. Mid-ramp, microbial-sponge frame-reefs represent a transgressive depositional sequence, up to tens of metres thick. A microbial-Crescentiella-ooid and ooid-intraclast-bioclast facies form numerous, decimetre- to metre-scale, sequences corresponding to higher-order, transgressive/regressive sea level changes. These facies represent a mid-inner ramp setting when sedimentation was dominated by bioclasts and non-skeletal grains (mainly ooids, oncoids, aggregate grains and intraclasts). The grains were stabilized by microbialites and cemented in early diagenesis, which created grain-dominated, microbial-cement supported reefs. As a result, both the mid-ramp, microbial-sponge frame-reefs and the shallow-water, grain-dominated, microbial-cement supported reefs form extensive, strongly lithified Oxfordian reef complexes in the Kraków–Częstochowa Upland.

Late Jurassic facies succession of the Kleszczów Graben area (southern border of the Łódź Depression, peri-Tethyan shelf, central Poland)