Stratigraphy of Cretaceous phosphates from Annopol

The Albian and Cenomanian (Cretaceous) deposits at Annopol in Central Poland have been famous for their wealth of phosphates and fossils. By 1970, over a million tons of phosphate rock had been mined here for production of fertilizers, and recently the phosphorites have been investigated as a potential source of rare earth elements (REE). In the years 2008–2016, thousands of remains of marine animals were excavated at Annopol, including bones and teeth of giant marine reptiles. The paper presents a new stratigraphical interpretation of the phosphorite interval and its implications for our understanding of this type of fossil accumulations.

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Illustration: Sections, stratigraphy and location of key sites of Cretaceous phosphorites at Annopol and Chałupki (Machalski et al. 2023).