The Miocene Central Paratethys Sea covered wide areas of the Pannonian Basin System,
bordered by the mountain chains of the Alps, Carpathians and Dinarides. The epicontinental
sea spread not only in the back-arc basin area, but flooded even the Alpine-Carpathian
Foredeep, situated along the front of gradually uplifting mountains. The Early Badenian
(early Langhian) transgressions from the Mediterranean toward the Central Paratethys
realm, via Slovenia and northern Croatia (Transtethyan Trench Corridor or Trans Dinaride
Corridor) flooded the Pannonian Basin and continued along straits in the Carpathian
Chain into the Carpathian Foredeep. The isolation of eastern parts of the Central
Paratethys at the end of this period (late Langhian) resulted in the “Middle Badenian”
salinity crisis. Thick evaporite sediments, above all halite and gypsum were deposited
in the Transcarpathian Basin, Transylvanian Basin and Carpathian Foredeep. During
the Late Badenian (early Serravallian), the latest full marine flooding covered the
whole back-arc basin and a great part of the foredeep. The main problem is to create
a model of sea connections during that time, because some authors consider the western
Transtethyan Trench Corridor (Trans Dinaride Corridor) closed and there is no evidence
to prove a supposed strait towards the Eastern Mediterranean. A proposed possibility
is a connection towards the Konkian Sea of the Eastern Paratethys. The Badenian climate
of the Central Paratethys realm can be characterized as fairly uniform, reflecting
the stable subtropical conditions of the Miocene Climatic Optimum. No considerable
changes in terrestrial ecosystems were documented. Nevertheless, evolution of steep
landscape associated with rapid uplift of the East Alpine and Western Carpathian mountain
chains (including high stratovolcanoes) caused development of vertical zonation of
dry land and consequently close occurrence of different vegetation zones in a relatively
small distance during this time. In the Central Paratethys Sea a slight N-S climatic
gradient seems to be expressed already from the Early Badenian, but a biogeographic
differentiation between basins in the North and South starts to become more prominent
first during the Late Badenian, when a moderate cooling of the seawater can also be
documented. The Late Badenian sea-level highstand coincides with the appearance of
stress factors such as stratification of the water column and hypoxic conditions at
the basin bottom in the whole area. Taking into account all bioevents and changes
of paleogeography in the Central Paratethys realm, we can very roughly correlate the
Early (and “Middle”) Badenian with the eustatic sea-level changes of TB 2.3, TB 2.4
or Bur5/Lan1, Lan2/Ser1 and the Late Badenian with TB 2.5 or Ser2 cycles (sensu Haq
et al. 1988; Hardenbol et al. 1998). Generally, we can assign the Early Badenian transgressions
to be controlled by both, tectonics (induced mainly by back-arc basin rifting) and
eustacy, followed by forced regression. The Late Badenian transgression and regression
were dominantly controlled by sea-level changes inside the Central Paratethys realm.
